Investors wiped $4.6bn from the market value of the US department store sector in the space of two days this week, as concern mounted about sliding sales and the effects of online competition. The consequences are spilling into the real estate and derivatives markets, and the latest bad news has intensified the focus on the sector ahead of more earnings reports from retail heavyweights next week. Five […]
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he wants to move quickly to nominate a new FBI director to replace James Comey, who he fired this week. Trump told reporters traveling with him on Air Force One that he may be able to make his decision on the Federal Bureau of Investigation head before he leaves in his first foreign trip later next […]
Elon Musk has an ambitious goal to decongest traffic through underground tunnels and he’s now shared footage of the project, but tread lightly. The video comes with a warning that it might trigger seizures or cause motion sickness. It shows a test run of an electric sled that would swiftly move cars through the tunnels at 125 mph (200 km/h), automatically shifting from one tunnel to another. […]
Nearly 70 years after he produced Hong Kong’s first plastic duck, toy industry veteran LT Lam’s factories in China now churn out everything from Transformers to Play-Doh. But with costs rising in China and the industry fragmenting because of technological advances and changing consumer tastes, the 93-year-old worries that Hong Kong could lose its decades-long role at the heart of the global toy industry. “We started with […]
Romero Rodrigues Contributor Romero Rodrigues is a managing partner at Redpoint eVentures, the Brazilian-focused arm of the Silicon Valley venture firm Redpoint. More posts by this contributor: Fintech is booming around the world. Global investments in fintech companies have continued to rise during the last two years. After international financing for fintech startups hit $19 billion in new funding rounds at the end of 2015, the volume […]
BARI, Italy Financial leaders of seven leading world economies will pledge stronger cooperation against cyber crime on Saturday and not to use foreign exchange to gain competitive advantage, but stick to their cautious wording on trade, a draft communique showed. Finance ministers and central bank governors from the United States, Canada, Japan, France, Germany, Italy and Britain are meeting in the Italian city of Bari to discuss […]
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. It’s unclear where to start with President Trump’s interview with NBC’s Lester Holt that left the White House second-string spokesperson on a precipice better associated with the Flying Wallendas. “Trump’s account flatly contradicts the White House’s initial account of how […]
ABU DHABI // Young Emirati diplomats will be key to bringing peace and reconciliation to the Middle East, a group of students heard this week. Reconciliation seems difficult amid tensions and turmoil in the Arab world, but Bernardino Leon, president of the Emirates Diplomatic Academy in Abu Dhabi, likened its future to the unification of Europe following the Second World War. “When you think of what’s going […]
Europe’s investment community has barely had time to breathe a sigh of relief following Emmanuel Macron’s victory in the French presidential elections before starting to fret about other latent threats to the eurozone. Some investors have hailed the election — in which Mr Macron, a pro-EU liberal defeated Marine Le Pen, the Eurosceptic rightwing candidate — as a sign that Europe’s economic recovery remains on track. This […]
Al Khozama Management Company has hired Salini Impregilo, one of the world’s largest contractors to redevelop a major retail and hospitality site in the Saudi capital of Riyadh. The SR1.1 billion ($290 million) Al Faisaliah District renovation contract will see the upgrade of Al Khozama’s retail, hospitality and commercial assets starting with the renewal of the Al Faisaliah Mall. The contract starts with a SR200 million refurbishment […]
By Ben Blanchard | BEIJING BEIJING China welcomes all countries to participate in this weekend’s forum on China’s new Silk Road plan, the Foreign Ministry said on Saturday, after the United States warned China that North Korea’s attendance could affect other countries’ participation. Two sources with knowledge of the situation said the U.S. embassy in Beijing had submitted a diplomatic note to China’s foreign ministry, saying that […]
What should we make of the global ransomware attacks which happened today? We’ve documented that the intelligence services intentionally create digital vulnerabilities, then intentionally leave them open … leaving us exposed and insecure. Washington’s Blog asked the highest level NSA whistleblower ever* – Bill Binney – what he thinks of the attacks. Binney told us: This is what I called short sighted finite thinking on the part […]
SEOUL A senior North Korean diplomat who handles relations with the United States said on Saturday Pyongyang would have dialogue with the U.S. administration if conditions were right, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported. Choe Son Hui, North Korea’s foreign ministry director general for U.S. affairs, made the comment to reporters in Beijing as she was travelling home from Norway, Yonhap said. “We’ll have dialogue if the […]
If you are an investor wanting a safe, unexciting asset to make a bit of money, avoid South Africa’s rand. It is not that you cannot make money trading the currency. You very much can, and you might make it big and quickly. The problem is you can also lose much more than you gain and at a frightening pace. To play the rand, investors need not […]
Technology and media confluence sets #AJTechSummit top trending on social media for two days May 11, 2017 – Doha, Qatar Held under the patronage of His Excellency Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer Al-Thani, Chairman of Al Jazeera Media Network, AJMN’s “Future of Media – Leaders’ Summit” concluded today at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Doha. The Summit, the first of its kind in the region, prominent figures and […]
The three beefy men sharing a laugh looked like old friends, not geopolitical adversaries. A smiling Donald Trump welcomed Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and its US ambassador Sergey Kislyak to the Oval Office on Wednesday, just a day after the president had fired the man investigating Moscow’s role in helping him enter the White House. The extraordinary scene was just the latest sign that Mr Trump […]
By Rory Carroll | LOS ANGELES LOS ANGELES Whether U.S. President Donald Trump will travel to Peru in September to promote Los Angeles’ 2024 Olympics bid is an open question but many believe the controversial leader would do more harm than good as the city vies with Paris for the Games. Trump’s executive order to temporarily ban travel from six Muslim-majority countries, which is currently being reviewed […]
By Irene Klotz | CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. NASA has delayed the first launch of its heavy-payload rocket until 2019 and decided against an idea floated by the White House to put astronauts aboard the capsule that is set to fly around the moon, the U.S. space agency said on Friday. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration had hoped to launch the Space Launch System, […]
UAE rider Saeed Al Khayari was crowned winner of the 120km Royal Windsor Endurance Race at Windsor Park in England, a race watched by Queen Elizabeth II. In the presence of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain, and Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, […]
By Steve Holland | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The United States is close to completing a series of deals to sell Saudi Arabia more than $100 billion in American arms and related maintenance, a senior White House official said on Friday, as President Donald Trump prepares to visit Riyadh in a week. The official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the arms package could end up […]
By Matt Spetalnick | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President Donald Trump will express support for Palestinian “self-determination” during a Middle East trip this month, a senior aide said on Friday, suggesting Trump is open to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict despite not having publicly embraced the idea so far. The comment by U.S. national security adviser H.R. McMaster came just nine days after a White House visit […]
Donald Trump capped a week of Watergate flashbacks in Washington on Friday, as he appeared to channel the ghost of Richard Nixon by threatening his recently sacked FBI director with the release of “tapes” of their private conversation. In a series of irate tweets, Mr Trump warned the former agency chief against leaking to the press amid conflicting accounts of events leading to the director’s sacking this […]
But conservatives have targeted Mr. Rouhani for what they regard as his softness toward the United States and tolerance of Western culture. They also have sharply criticized him for what they call his misleading prediction that the nuclear agreement would herald an economic boom in Iran, where joblessness remains pervasive and the economy is the most pressing campaign issue. Still, Mr. Rouhani is considered the front-runner. Photo […]
By Costas Pitas and Carlos Ruano | LONDON/MADRID LONDON/MADRID A global cyberattack leveraging hacking tools widely believed by researchers to have been developed by the U.S. National Security Agency hit international shipper FedEx, disrupted Britain’s health system and infected computers in dozens of other countries on Friday. Russian cyber security software maker Kaspersky Lab said its researchers had observed more than 45,000 attacks in 74 countries as […]
