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. Sean Hannity, the eight-figure archetype of selective moral outrage, last night charged the press with going “completely insane” over the James Comey firing. Hannity accused it of “selective moral outrage,” proving it takes one to know one amid wall-to-wall Comey […]
MANNHEIM, Germany SAP (SAPG.DE) said on Wednesday its executive pay system was reasonable, defending management bonuses against the criticism of some shareholders. “Our executive payment must be seen in comparison with other software companies and must be competitive,” SAP’s co-founder and supervisory board Chairman Hasso Plattner told the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting. “We think we have a reasonable system,” he added. Leading shareholder advisors have called on […]
A new report indicates that life expectancy in the United States varies by as high as 20 years depending on one’s county of birth. Researchers at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at Washington University undertook the study and revealed the existing disparity in life expectancy from county to county. Life Expectancy Disparity The lead author of the study Christopher Murray and team examined death records of […]
According to a new U.S.-based study, overall environmental pollution — water, air, and land — can greatly increase the risk of Americans developing cancer. The study asserts that poor air quality — coupled with other man-made factors that impact the environment, such as construction of major roads and highways, housing, and public transport — are responsible for elevating cancer risk in both men and women. On the […]
Arm fatigue accumulates during a prolonged use of mid-air interfaces such as Oculus Rift. Credit: Purdue University Photo/Brian Huchel Researchers at Purdue University’s C Design Lab are studying arm and muscle fatigue connected to advancements in the use of hand gestures for mid-air computer interaction. Computer interaction improvements have included the expanding use of natural motions and gestures to control floating graphical user interfaces. As a result, […]
By Sue-Lin Wong | HUNCHUN, China HUNCHUN, China In August, 2014, planners in the northeastern Chinese city of Hunchun argued in state media that it should be included in the “One Belt, One Road” project, Beijing’s vision laid out the previous year of a new Silk Road across Asia to Europe. In 2015, the official Xinhua news agency ran stories about how Hunchun was accelerating its “OBOR” […]
By Steve Holland and Jeff Mason | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday abruptly fired FBI Director James Comey in the fallout over Comey’s probe of Democrat Hillary Clinton’s emails last year, saying Comey was no longer able to effectively lead the law enforcement agency. Comey had been leading an FBI investigation into allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and possible […]
By Timothy Gardner | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Eight Democratic senators asked U.S. regulators on Tuesday to launch an investigation into billionaire Carl Icahn’s activities in the U.S. biofuels blending credit market, saying the activist investor may have violated trading laws since becoming an adviser to President Donald Trump. “We are writing to request that your agencies investigate whether Carl Icahn violated insider trading laws, anti-market manipulation laws, or […]
Expired EpiPens may still be usable more than four years after their expiry date. Findings of a new study that looked at the potency of auto-injectors after their expiry date suggest it may be worth using one that is past the expiration if it is all you have got. The new study shows that long after their supposed expiration dates, the injectors still have the concentration of epinephrine […]
By Se Young Lee and Ju-min Park | SEOUL SEOUL South Korea’s liberal leader Moon Jae-in will take the oath of office as president on Wednesday, tasked with navigating the country out of rising geopolitical tensions over North Korea’s nuclear programme and the risk of a rift with the United States. Moon, 64, is expected to announce major cabinet and presidential staff appointments as early as Wednesday […]
The question might not just be how, but why? Why would you even attempt to adapt a graphic novel about robots in love into a puppet-show/real-time movie, soundtracked by a live string quartet and turntables? In Kid Koala’s case, the answer could perhaps be summed up as happenstance, circumstance and a smidgen of blind ambition. The genesis of Nufonia Must Fall – the multidisciplinary performance, which will […]
Moon Jae-in has triumphed in the South Korean presidential election with over 40 percent of the vote, according to exit polls. But the liberal leader’s solid victory can’t patch over deeper political wounds. Just as the United Kingdom’s vote to leave the European Union left British society divided and Donald Trump’s election polarized Americans, the impeachment of Park Geun-hye has split South Korea. While more than 75 […]
Minnesota is currently dealing with the worst measles outbreak the state has seen in the past three decades. According to the state health department, there have been 44 confirmed cases since the outbreak was first identified in April. This is particularly worrisome given the high transmission rate of the virus — one person with measles can infect between 12 and up to 18 other people in the unimmunized […]
Members of President Donald Trump’s cabinet have a new catchphrase for how they see the future role of the US: not just “energy-independent”, but “energy-dominant”. As Ryan Zinke, the interior secretary, put it at an industry conference in Houston last week: “Dominance is what America needs.” It would be tempting to dismiss that talk as hype, except that every week the US energy sector is coming up […]
The news has been abuzz lately with a forex (foreign exchange market) investment company based in Penang. The company has around 400,000 investors/members, and they have all not received their promised dividends recently. Worse still, they were all denied access when they tried to log into their accounts on the website. Even when they tried going to the offices, they could not get answers because the offices were CLOSED!!! […]
By Douglas Busvine | DHARAMSALA, India DHARAMSALA, India A U.S. Congressional delegation visited the Dalai Lama at his headquarters in India on Tuesday, seeking to draw world attention to human rights in Tibet as President Donald Trump eyes warmer ties with China. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi flew with a bipartisan delegation to the Himalayan hill town where the 81-year-old Buddhist leader is based, on a trip […]
Malta’s embattled prime minister, Joseph Muscat, is facing a growing rebellion in Brussels, where MEPs are openly calling for his departure amid a growing corruption scandal involving his wife, a Panamanian shell company and alleged payments from the president of Azerbaijan’s daughter. The Mediterranean island state’s presidency of the EU, which began in January, has been rocked by allegations of money laundering and kickbacks. Malta’s spell at […]
Sign up to receive FirstFT by email here Days after Donald Trump was elected, President Barack Obama warned his successor against hiring former general Michael Flynn as his security adviser. Mr Trump ignored the advice and Mr Flynn resigned after 17 days on the job amid the growing investigation of the Trump team’s ties to Russia. This is just one of the revelations to emerge following a Senate […]
By Elisabeth O’Leary | GALASHIELS, Scotland GALASHIELS, Scotland – Calum Kerr, a parliamentarian from the Scottish National Party (SNP), is having to work hard to get his message across. As he defends a wafer-thin majority in Britain’s June 8 election, he wants to focus on issues directly affecting his farming constituency bordering England, with its struggling economy that may suffer further when Britain leaves the European Union. […]
By Venus Wu and Stefanie McIntyre | HONG KONG HONG KONG A former senior Hong Kong official and a billionaire property tycoon arrived in court on Tuesday to appeal against a corruption charge more than two years after they were jailed in one of the city’s most high profile corruption cases. Rafael Hui, who headed the Hong Kong government civil service from 2005 to 2007, was sentenced […]
By Henning Gloystein | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Oil prices edged up on Tuesday, driven by anticipation that an OPEC-led pledge to cut production would be extended beyond the first half of the year and into 2018, although overall high supply still weighed on markets. Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $49.60 per barrel at 0045 GMT on Tuesday, up 26 cents, or 0.5 […]
Scientists conducting studies that investigate how certain cancer tumors form have made an accidental discovery that may potentially lead to the development of a cure for balding and graying hair. Accidental Discovery Study researcher Lu Le, from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and colleagues unexpectedly discovered what is responsible for turning hair gray and making it fall out or stop growing. The researchers found that […]
By Shu Zhang and Matthew Miller | BEIJING BEIJING A Chinese government campaign to cut leverage in the banking system and limit some risky activities appears to be working, but it is also pushing borrowers back towards alternative funding sources that carry similar risks to the financial system. First-quarter official data shows banks cut the amount they lent to and borrowed from other financial institutions by 1.4 […]
By Tom Hals and Diane Bartz | WILMINGTON, Del./WASHINGTON WILMINGTON, Del./WASHINGTON Health insurer Anthem Inc (ANTM.N) asked a Delaware judge on Monday to give it more time to try to win approval for a merger with rival Cigna Corp (CI.N), which is seeking to end the deal and collect a $1.85 billion break-up fee. Anthem asked Vice Chancellor Travis Laster of Delaware’s Court of Chancery to grant […]
