For a quick study in market blindness, look at how an obscure US fund reacts to events in a country where markets do not even exist. Nearly two years ago US president Barack Obama and Cuban president Raúl Castro jointly announced their intent to rejuvenate the diplomatic and commercial relationship between their two countries. Until that day, the Cuba closed-end fund had historically traded beneath its net […]
Photo President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey visiting the mausoleum of an Islamic scholar in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, last month. Credit Pool photo by Kayhan Ozer, via Associated Press ISTANBUL — Almost a century after the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and his supporters believe that they can restore the empire’s former glory. Stroll through the streets of any Turkish city and you […]
By Laila Bassam and John Davison | ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT Syrian’s military and Russian warplanes bombarded rebel-held districts of Aleppo on Saturday as Damascus’s allies said victory was near, but insurgents fought back and army advances halted after rapid gains during the week. The United States said it was meeting a Russian team in Geneva to find a way to save lives, but an agreement looked […]
Tom Brokaw has a theory about covering politics that can be summed up in three letters: U.F.O. The basic idea is this: If something unforeseen can occur, it will. That’s why, when asked what the biggest news story will be one year from today, he gave an honest answer: “I don’t know.” “We don’t know what’s going to happen with Donald Trump,” Brokaw said. “We don’t know […]
Submitted by Nomi Prins via TomDispatch.com, Given his cabinet picks so far, it’s reasonable to assume that The Donald finds hanging out with anyone who isn’t a billionaire (or at least a multimillionaire) a drag. What would there be to talk about if you left the Machiavellian class and its exploits for the company of the sort of normal folk you can rouse at a rally? It’s […]
Opec’s first supply cut in eight years looks set to earn the 13-member cartel an extra $5bn a month in revenues. The 15 per cent rally in oil prices since last Wednesday’s agreement looks like an impressive return from a marginal cut in output, even if the deal was months in the making. Beyond the headline price reaction the market has thrown Opec a curve ball. Oil […]
Saudi Arabia has told its US and European customers it will reduce oil deliveries from January, as Russia said it was confident non-OPEC producers would fully join OPEC’s output limits on Saturday in the first such move since 2001. Saudi Arabia told the customers about lower supplies in line with the output reduction agreed by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries last week, according to a […]
From spray-on skin for burns victims, the electronic pacemaker, the Gardasil and Cervarix cancer vaccines, or finding the medical application of penicillin, Australia has a reputation of birthing a number of medical innovations that have changed the global healthcare industry. In 1967, Sydney-based Dr Graeme Clark began researching the possibilities of an electronic implantable hearing device, and by 1978, the first ever Cochlear implant was performed. Cochlear […]
By Warren Strobel, Yara Bayoumy and John Irish | WASHINGTON/PARIS WASHINGTON/PARIS Key U.S. allies in Europe are quietly expressing concern over President-elect Donald Trump’s approach to Syria, warning that his pledge to work more closely with Russia, Damascus’ main backer, will do little to diminish the terrorist threat emanating from Syria. The diplomatic persuasion campaign has taken on new importance in recent days as the Syrian army, […]
By Laila Bassam and Lisa Barrington | ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT The Syrian army pressed an offensive in Aleppo on Friday with ground fighting and air strikes in an operation to retake all of the city’s rebel-held east that would bring victory in the civil war closer for President Bashar al-Assad. “The advance is going according to plan and is sometimes faster than expected,” a Syrian military […]
Pulp Fiction and Star Wars star Samuel L Jackson, who picked up his lifetime achievement award at the Dubai International Film Festival on Wednesday, is renowned for speaking honestly on issues from race relations to gender equality and American politics, so when The National sat down with him Friday morning, we couldn’t avoid checking whether his yearning for Diff was heartfelt or the result of an unexpected […]
By Luiza Ilie | BUCHAREST BUCHAREST When Romania’s leftist government collapsed a year ago amid outrage over a deadly nightclub fire, many people spied an opportunity for sweeping change in a country plagued by corruption and inept public services. But after the upswelling of public anger over the deaths of 64 people in the Club Colectiv, which lacked emergency exits and fire safety permits, the clamour for […]
In 2011, as skincare brand Nivea marked its centenary with a string of parties across the world, Indian billionaire BR Shetty hosted his own private celebration in his extraordinary apartment in Dubai’s Burj Khalifa. No humble pied-à-terre, this pad occupies the entire 100th floor of the tallest building in the world — not bad for the former pharmaceutical salesman, who was one of the first people to […]
By Praveen Menon | KUALA LUMPUR KUALA LUMPUR Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak’s stern rebuke to Myanmar for a military-led crackdown on Muslim Rohingyas was a rarity among Southeast Asian nations, who adhere to a policy of non-interference in each other’s domestic affairs. Critics saw the beleaguered Najib reaching for the moral high ground with his criticism over the weekend of Myanmar in order to pander to […]
Bayern, as ever, is in the vanguard. In recent years, it has become a commercial juggernaut. It rakes in more money from commercial activity than any other club in the world, apart from the Qatari-backed Paris Saint-Germain, and it has established satellite offices in New York and Shanghai to press its interests far from its home base in Bavaria. That success, and that reach, are sources of […]
More than half of total Starbucks stores in the United States will be turned into either PokéStops or Gyms as part of a special Pokémon GO promotional event that was leaked recently. The official announcement of Pokémon GO‘s special Starbucks event comes just a day after Niantic announced its partnership with Sprint, growing Niantic’s roster of corporate partners as it lures players back into the game. This, coupled with […]
The worst may soon be over for corporate borrowers from the battered US energy industry, according to S&P Global, as a flurry of debt sales suggests investors are confident the Opec supply cut will help put a floor under the oil price. While defaults of energy groups will continue into 2017, analysts with the credit rating agency say they are likely to level out next year and […]
3M Co (MMM.N), the maker of Scotch tape and Post-it notes, said it had entered into agreements to sell its identity management business to Amsterdam-based digital security company Gemalto (GTO.AS) for $850 million. The unit, which provides biometric solutions used in law enforcement, border control and civil identification, has annual global sales of about $215 million. “We believe that the identity management business will be better positioned […]
By Laila Bassam and John Davison | ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT The Syrian army’s advance in Aleppo slowed on Thursday but a victory was still firmly in sight after President Bashar al-Assad vowed that retaking the city would change the course of the six-year-old war. Russia’s RIA news agency quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying the Syrian army, which has captured territory including Aleppo’s historic […]
Thursday 21:00 GMT Overview The European Central Bank’s latest policy surprise fuelled a volatile session for the euro and government bonds as participants appeared, initially at least, to struggle to assess its implications. But European stocks rose to 11-month highs while Wall Street overcame an early bout of fatigue to set yet more record peaks. Oil prices resumed their upward path, even as a stronger dollar unsettled […]
By Alex Lawler and Rania El Gamal | LONDON/DUBAI LONDON/DUBAI Only five of 14 non-OPEC oil producers have agreed so far to meet the group on Saturday for talks aimed at widening a deal to reduce output, casting doubt on whether OPEC will secure the full cuts it is seeking, two OPEC sources said. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which finalised its first oil output […]
The Lifetime Achievement Award handed to Samuel L Jackson during the opening ceremony of this year’s Dubai International Film Festival on Wednesday honours an improbably prolific 40-year career during which the actor has become as ubiquitous as popcorn. Above all else, moviemaking is a business, and on Jackson’s website, you can find a startling fact to explain the true meaning of the citation: “In recognition of his […]
It was Donald Trump’s press conference in the early hours of November 9 that some pinpoint as the moment fears about what his presidency would mean for stock markets turned into euphoria about his victory. Campaign pledges to give a boost to the US economy were repeated, as the newly president-elect struck a moderate, even conciliatory, tone. Whatever you think of the reaction in financial markets since, […]
I spot the ship long before the car pulls up to the cruise terminal at Abu Dhabi’s Mina Zayed. Part of the Celebrity Cruises fleet, the stately Celebrity Constellation – dark blue and white, and marked with a distinctive “X” logo at the top – stands 13 decks tall. Orange lifeboats hang high on Deck 5, and the shaded gangplank looks like a tunnel boring into the […]
