By Giselda Vagnoni and Agnieszka Flak | ROME/MILAN ROME/MILAN Italians are watching their flag carrier Alitalia go into yet another financial tailspin, and a growing number of them believe it would be better for the country if it crashed. Outraged at repeated state bailouts that have cost taxpayers more than 7 billion euros ($7.62 billion) over a decade, many Italians are taking to social media to urge […]
European leaders are warning Theresa May over her “completely unreal” expectations of a swift trade deal, as they gathered in Brussels to agree a tough opening stance on Brexit talks. Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, briefed an EU summit on Saturday on a recent dinner where the British prime minister said any Brexit exit payment would only pass before 2019 if accompanied by a full trade […]
By Drazen Jorgic | ISLAMABAD ISLAMABAD Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday sacked one of his special advisers and sanctioned another bureaucrat after an inquiry into a newspaper leak, but the country’s powerful army rejected Sharif’s directive as “incomplete”. The report’s findings and recommendations threaten to reopen a rift between the army and the civilian government at a time when relations between the two have been […]
President Donald Trump’s populist views, reality television stardom, and penchant for Twitter insults all but guaranteed an out-of-the-ordinary first 100 days for the billionaire political neophyte. A look at the data reveals how Mr Trump compares with previous Oval Office occupants. Bills signed into law Enacted legislation for last seven presidents in first 100 days Source: govtrack.us The White House touts that Mr Trump has accomplished more […]
Acer just announced two new 2-in-1 devices that’ll widen its Switch product lineup: the Switch 5 and the Switch 3. The company bills its new machines as having “versatile, highly-mobile designs for work, school and fun.” Acer Switch 5: Specs, Price, Release Date The Switch 5 is the top-of-the-line model of the two, featuring a fanless cooling system, its own stylus, a fingerprint scanner, and latest Intel Kaby […]
Emerging from an Hermès store in Shanghai with a shiny new watch costing “tens of thousands” of renminbi, Zhao Feifei is emblematic of a younger generation of Chinese consumers driving a rebound in sales of European luxury brands. “I’m earning more than before so I’m more willing to spend,” says Ms Zhao, who works in an internet finance company. The 30-year-old is one of the many customers […]
From the Slope of Hope: Earlier this week, my son asked me a sincere question: “How come Marissa Mayer got $200 million by screwing up Yahoo?” It was a good question, and one I had trouble answering at first, because I’d like him to think that there’s some level of fairness, meritocracy, and sensibility to this world of ours. In Mayer’s case, however, there is none. Her entire massive fortune is […]
By Jeffrey Dastin | SAN FRANCISCO SAN FRANCISCO Amazon.com Inc’s ventures far beyond online retail, from cloud computing to movie making, are raising questions among corporate strategy experts about its focus. The Seattle-based company wowed Wall Street again this week with a 23 percent jump in sales, pushing its shares to an all-time high. But there are concerns that if blockbuster growth stops, investors may come to […]
That it fell to Barcelona’s Lionel Messi to score the match-winning goal away to arch-rivals Real Madrid on Sunday was of little surprise to his legions of devotees, who already view the diminutive Argentinian as something of an immortal giant on the football field, and even to casual fans. El Clasico – the lyrical Spanish name for matches played between the two powerhouses of the country’s domestic […]
By Manuel Mogato | MANILA MANILA Southeast Asian countries have altered a statement to be issued at Saturday’s ASEAN summit to include references to militarization and island-building in the South China Sea, the latest draft shows, in a move likely to frustrate Beijing. Chinese embassy representatives in Manila had sought to influence the content of the communique by lobbying Philippine officials, two ASEAN diplomatic sources told Reuters. […]
When the Nasdaq Composite index first spent two days above the 5,000 mark, it signalled the last gasp of a spectacular bull market. Confidence in internet companies’ power to change the world and mint fortunes was about to collapse. Seventeen years later the market has hit a milestone of 6,000, part of a run of record highs for global equity markets. While stocks have again been rising […]
US hotel giant Hilton has announced that it has more than 16,000 rooms under construction in the Gulf region which will open by 2020. Hilton CEO Chris Nassetta underlined the importance of the region to his company’s ambitious expansion plans. He said Hilton has a total of over 21,000 rooms in its pipeline across the Gulf, with the six markets of the GCC contributing more than a […]
By Alastair Macdonald | BRUSSELS BRUSSELS European Union leaders will endorse a stiff set of divorce terms for Britain at a summit on Saturday, rejoicing in a rare show of unity in adversity, but well aware that may start to fray once negotiations begin. Meeting for the first time since British Prime Minister Theresa May formally triggered a two-year countdown to Brexit in late March, the 27 […]
By Rosalba O’Brien | SANTIAGO SANTIAGO A cluster of tremors shook central Chile on Friday afternoon, leaving locals worried that a bigger earthquake may be imminent and prompting some early closures of schools and workplaces. At least seven tremors struck offshore the coastal city of Valparaiso in less than an hour, with the largest rattling buildings in the Chilean capital Santiago some 102 kilometers (63 miles) away. […]
Destination weddings are as popular as ever, with one in four of all affluent couples choosing to tie the knot abroad. From intimate barefoot ceremonies on a white sandy beach, to elaborate events in any imaginable location, destination weddings come in all shapes and sizes. However, some destinations are more convenient than others, because they’re easier to get to, require less red tape and offer a truly […]
Violence erupted in Macedonia’s parliament as tensions between ethnic Albanian minorities and nationalists boiled over, prompting sharp rebukes from Western governments. Protesters supportive of the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party, as well as individuals clad in identity-concealing hoods, stormed parliament on Thursday night local time, violently accosting at least lawmakers and journalists. Police say the violence left 102 inside and outside parliament injured. Parliament had just managed to break […]
By Jacob Greaves and Kylie MacLellan | LONDON LONDON The election campaign launch of Britain’s eurosceptic UK Independence Party got off to a troubled start on Friday, when protesters accused its leader Paul Nuttall of promoting racist propaganda after he promised to ban full face veils. UKIP, whose former leader Nigel Farage helped drive support for Brexit before last year’s referendum, was once seen as a threat […]
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. When Barack Obama was vacationing recently with Bruce Springsteen, Tom Hanks and Oprah Winfrey aboard a $300 million yacht in Tahiti, one wonders if he ever hummed Springsteen’s “All Or Nothin’ At All.” At the moment, it seems like he […]
Bioluminescent mushrooms, an unusual and beautiful sight of nature, have intrigued researchers for years. Scientists have also attempted to unravel the mystery behind why some mushrooms glow in the dark. A team of researchers from Japan, Russia, and Brazil have finally decoded the mystery of the glow-in-the-dark mushrooms. In a new research paper, scientists detailed the reason why two mushroom types exhibit bioluminescence. The researchers focused on […]
Emerging market equities have been the darling asset class de jour in 2017, mainly in Asia and Latin America, despite the March FOMC rate hike, a US Dollar Index at or above 100 and a mini-swoon in crude oil after a Saudi-Russian output cut spat. Earnings growth (India/Thailand) a stabilized currency (China), policy reforms (India, Brazil, Indonesia) local interest rate cuts (Brazil) and lower US protectionist policies […]
Distribution agreement boosts Eikon’s robust research offering with economic sovereign reports London, 28 April 2017 – Users of Thomson Reuters flagship financial platform Eikon can now access Oxford Business Group’s full range of research on emerging economies, following a distribution agreement between the two firms, giving financial professionals instant access to OBG’s extensive range of reports and economic updates. OBG content is available through Eikon’s real-time and […]
By Manolo Serapio Jr | MANILA MANILA Philippine police sacked the chief of a Manila police station on Friday and launched an investigation after a human rights group responding to a tip-off found a secret cell that was illegally holding drug suspects without charge. The discovery of the cell will raise more questions about the Philippine National Police (PNP), which is coming under intense criticism for a […]
By Philip Pullella | ROME ROME They will not be drawing swords like their predecessors did 1,000 years ago, but battle lines have been drawn between conservatives and reformers in the Knights of Malta, the Catholic chivalric order and global charity. Its former leader, Briton Matthew Festing, has returned to Rome for a decisive boardroom confrontation over its future this Saturday, defying a request to stay away […]
WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump told Reuters on Thursday he will either renegotiate or terminate what he called a “horrible” free trade deal with South Korea and said Seoul should pay for a U.S. anti-missile system that he priced at $1 billion. In an interview with Reuters, Trump called the five-year-old trade pact with South Korea “unacceptable” and said it would be targeted for renegotiation after his […]
