2016 is definitely a memorable year for various reasons, but Google’s latest compilation of “Year in Search” reveals that much of the things that made the year memorable were because of huge losses. Not only for those in the United States but for everyone around the globe. The year marked losses due to disease, politics, and terrorism, and issues being searched about often divided the world as […]
When the first commercial solar photovoltaic panel was unveiled in 1954, it was only capable of converting into electricity six per cent of the Sun’s light. Efficiency has increased since then, making solar a viable option for homes and power plants alike. The gains started plateauing in the 1990s and today’s panels, which convert about a quarter of the sunlight they capture into electricity, are only slightly […]
Christmas is coming: an event as exciting for the toymakers hoping to fill stockings with this year’s hottest new playthings as it is for the children who will open them on December 25. Expectations of a bumper festive period have brought early Christmas presents for investors in companies such as Spin Master, Hasbro and Nintendo — manufacturers behind some of the biggest hits — that have all […]
By MacDonald Dzirutwe | MASVINGO, Zimbabwe MASVINGO, Zimbabwe Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was confirmed on Saturday as his party’s sole candidate for the next presidential election in 2018, when he will be 94. Supporters at a party conference sang a song titled “Mugabe should rule until eternity” as the veteran leader rose to give a speech in which he called for an end to infighting within the […]
Following yesterday’s biggest, market-moving geopolitical event, in which a US oceanographic vessel had its underwater drone “stolen” by a Chinese warship “literally right in front of the eyes of the American crew”, we predicted that everyone would be eagerly waiting for Trump to chime in on the topic, and further escalating the diplomatic spat between the two nations which now involves China confiscating US marine drones, the […]
The smart home is gaining ground, but it’s still a muddle of confusing standards, competing platforms, and gadgets that don’t do what you might expect. But the promise of products that can make your life a little easier is hard to resist, so I’m here to answer the inevitable questions that arise. Whether it’s figuring out the best connected door lock to assembling the right […]
By Lucia Mutikani | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. homebuilding fell more than expected in November, tumbling from a nine-year high as construction activity declined broadly, the latest sign of slower economic growth in the fourth quarter. But the housing market remains on solid ground, with Friday’s report from the Commerce Department showing permits for the future construction of single-family homes, the biggest segment of the market, rising to […]
Wherever she travels, Christine Lagarde receives head of state treatment. But back home in Paris this week, in the chamber where Marie-Antoinette was sentenced to death by guillotine during the French Revolution, the chief of the International Monetary Fund faced unimpressed judges and uncompromising former colleagues. For five days in the small, wood-panelled room, she gave evidence and listened to damning testimonies that pointed to her alleged […]
To do otherwise, he said, would have required the United States to be “all in and willing to take over Syria.” Continue reading the main story The recent developments in the Syrian conflict send a message to autocratic leaders in the region and elsewhere that force works — and brings few consequences, said Maha Yahya, the director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. The lesson […]
The arctic air that has chilled large swaths of the northern United States for days will culminate this weekend with dangerous cold in Montana and North Dakota as heavy snow falls in other parts of the country, officials said. People in North Dakota face “life threatening cold” and the risk of frostbite with exposure of 10 minutes or less, the National Weather Service (NWS) said in an […]
By Chuck Mikolajczak | NEW YORK NEW YORK Benchmark U.S. stock index rallies, in anticipation of fiscal stimulus measures by the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump, could also be laying the seeds for equity market troubles from a stronger dollar and rising bond yields. The S&P 500 stock index .SPX has surged over 8 percent since the Nov. 8 election, due in large part to sectors […]
Capitalism as we know it is irrevocably in its death throes, argues German sociologist Wolfgang Streeck, which on its own is not a novel thesis. In our age of regular financial crashes and bursting bubbles, illiberal movements and borderless wars, even Nobel Prize winners and mainstream thinkers – I think of Joseph Stiglitz, among others – say that the post-war free market regime is broken, and that […]
Wells Fargo has said the number of customers opening accounts has dropped sharply for a third consecutive month — underlining the scale of the fallout from the recent scandal over its sales tactics. Customers opened 41 per cent fewer Wells Fargo current accounts in November than they did a year ago and made 45 per cent fewer credit card applications. These figures cap another difficult week for […]
Where there was discord, Donald Trump has remarkably brought harmony. He has brought peace between the markets and Janet Yellen, as traders at last appear to believe her forecast for interest rates over the next year. The Federal Reserve says it intends to raise rates three times next year, and the market implicitly, through Fed Funds futures, puts the chance of this happening at almost exactly 50 […]
‘You can’t put a price tag on anybody’s life’ Two years after the overdose that killed her 21-year-old son, Terri Bartlett traveled to Illinois’ state capital to champion an unlikely cause: revamped painkillers. Bartlett’s son Michael became hooked on Vicodin and later graduated to heroin. In emotional testimony last year, she urged lawmakers to support a bill that would prioritize the new harder-to-crush pills, saying she believed […]
CAIRO: Growing up in Egypt, Mina and other Copts remember all too well the anti-Christian slurs they used to hear at school and on the street.Once, while playing football, a Muslim youth snatched Mina’s necklace and crucifix and stomped on it.“I won’t forget that day,” said Mina, now in his 30s.Egypt is now trying to come to terms with the kind of religious bigotry behind a December […]
Submitted by Duane via Free Market Shooter blog, On Thursday, December 1st, Yasmin Seweid was allegedly assaulted by Trump supporters in NYC. According to BuzzFeed and the NY Daily News, the attack took place at the uptown 6 train stop at 23rd Street in midtown Manhattan. The assaliants allegedly called Seweid a terrorist, broke her bag strap, followed her when she tried to get away from them, […]
BEIJING China expects a smooth resolution to the seizure by its navy of “unidentified” equipment found in the South China Sea, a state-run newspaper said on Saturday, after U.S. officials said a Chinese warship had taken a U.S. underwater drone. The drone was taken on Thursday, the first seizure of its kind in recent memory, about 50 nautical miles northwest of Subic Bay off the Philippines just […]
Image: ZDNet [This article has been updated several times since its initial publication to incorporate changes in Windows 10. Last updated: December 16, 2016] Over the past year, I’ve read countless “privacy guides” for Windows 10. Most are well-intentioned, but they invariably take a simplistic approach to privacy: Just turn off every switch in the Privacy section of the Settings app. If you do that, you’re not […]
Dubai, 15 December 2016 At the end of October the new cryptocurrency Zcash was launched. It is positioned by its creators as a more secure alternative to Bitcoin. Soon after the launch, the price of Zcash coins skyrocketed, followed by a spike in the installation of the application used to generate Zcash on personal computers. In many of these cases, the app was disguised as something else […]
The biggest surprise in meeting the entrepreneur behind Gulf meat eateries such as B+F Burger Boutique and Slider Station is learning that he is a recent adopter of veganism. Basil Al Salem — king of the juicy steak shawarmas on offer at Nomad Kitchen and the Coca-Cola-braised short ribs served up at Slider Station — went vegan earlier this year. But this does not mean that he […]
By Roberta Rampton and Jeff Mason | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President Barack Obama said on Friday it was fine for President-elect Donald Trump to review Washington’s “one-China” policy toward Taiwan, but he cautioned that a shift could lead to significant consequences in the U.S. relationship with Beijing. “For China, the issue of Taiwan is as important as anything on their docket,” Obama told a news conference. “The idea […]
On April 6, 2009, an earthquake of a magnitude of 6.3 on the Richter scale hit the Italian city of L’Aquila. It killed more than 300 people, injured 1,500 and wreaked enough destruction to force 65,000 to abandon their homes, “politics and corruption” having led to the “poor enforcement” of essential laws of what could have been life- and home-saving anti-earthquake construction in many buildings. This real-life […]
A group of intelligence experts, including a former head of MI6, has cut ties with fellow academics at Cambridge university, in a varsity spy scare harking back to the heyday of Soviet espionage at the heart of the British establishment. Sir Richard Dearlove, the ex-chief of the Secret Intelligence Service and former master of Pembroke college, Stefan Halper, a senior foreign policy adviser at the White House […]
