Donald Trump is planning to hand responsibility for immigration and the US-Mexico border to John Kelly, a retired general who led US military operations in Latin America. The president-elect has chosen the former Marine general to be secretary of homeland security, head of the department that oversees immigration policy, US media reported on Wednesday. The job would give Mr Kelly, 66, a pivotal role in implementing border […]
Even Kurdish guerrilla units are fully integrated by gender: Women occupy the same combat roles as men, and when the military goes to war, it sends a woman to command one of its major units. Continue reading the main story There is one big problem with this aspect of Kurdish life, in Turkey at least: It has, in effect, been outlawed as part of the Turkish government’s […]
Fresh from touting a deal to save hundreds of jobs at the Carrier plant in Indiana as proof he would hold to his election pledge to protect American workers, it appears to have escaped Donald Trump that his attack on Boeing’s contract to replace Air Force One would endanger the employment of thousands of highly skilled aerospace workers. After claiming this week that the “$4 billion” cost […]
This article by David Haggith was published first on The Great Recession Blog: I risked losing my fellow anti-establishment readers in September by suggesting Trump may be an establishment Trojan horse. After seeing Trump choose Pence as VP and a Goldman Sachs exec as campaign finance manager, I was concerned the establishment knew a citizen’s revolt was brewing and made sure that even the road to revolt led back to […]
German and French stocks are closing in on a 20 per cent gain from their post-Brexit low, as a weaker euro and a thawing in sentiment towards banks raise the prospect that markets which disappointed investors for much of 2016 end it in positive territory. While the rebounds of the the two largest equity markets on the continent have been overshadowed by the run of new record […]
Matteo Renzi will resign as Italian prime minister on Wednesday evening, bringing an end to nearly three years in office after he suffered a stinging defeat in a referendum on his flagship constitutional reforms. Mr Renzi announced his resignation on Twitter and his departure will be formalised with a visit to Sergio Mattarella, the Italian president, at 7pm on Wednesday. On Thursday, Mr Mattarella is expected to […]
ISTANBUL Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Wednesday called for the immediate extradition of eight Turkish soldiers who fled to Greece and sought asylum following a coup attempt in July. A Greek court earlier this week had ruled that three of the eight could be extradited while the Appeals Court had ruled that three other Turkish soldiers should not be returned home. Speaking to state-run broadcaster TRT […]
The European Central Bank should retool its asset-purchase programme to fund a wave of new infrastructure spending across the continent, according to one of the world’s most powerful bond managers. Rick Rieder, global chief investment officer of BlackRock’s $1.6tn fixed income business, says the ECB should avoid a “false choice” between continuing on its present course or tapering its existing programme, when it meets to decide monetary […]
Microsoft has unveiled a new chatbot named Zo, but this time, she’s available on Kik, instead of Twitter, where earlier this year, her predecessor—known as Tay—went on a rather racist tirade before being shut down. I’ve never heard a clear explanation as to why Microsoft is making chatbots, and I have to assume the worst: They are on track to deliver ads. If you ever […]
Holly Russell, former graduate student in the Dynamic Design Lab, is lead author of a new study on the handover of control from an autonomous car to a human driver. She is shown in Stanford’s X1 experimental vehicle. Credit: Steve Castillo There you are, cruising down the freeway, listening to some tunes and enjoying the view as your autonomous car zips and swerves through traffic. Then the […]
Sony plans to unleash some of its iconic PlayStation titles on smartphones from next spring, in its most determined attempt yet to capture a bigger share of the $35bn global mobile gaming market. The move follows the runaway success of augmented reality mobile game Pokémon Go, with rival Nintendo’s famous character demonstrating the power of Japan’s intellectual property when tapping into a global pool of smartphone users. […]
This is part of a series on the global rise of exchange traded funds Have we reached Peak ETF? And are we therefore at last in a “stockpicker’s market” where active fund managers skilled in bottom-up stock selection can feast on the mispricings and anomalies that the herd of exchange traded funds have left in their wake? It is beguiling to think that this could have happened. […]
The international general director of fragrances for Cartier Parfums has worked with the brilliant Mathilde Laurent, Cartier’s in-house perfumer, to develop some of the maison’s most iconic scents, such as Les Heures de Parfum and L’Envol de Cartier, which was unveiled in Dubai in September. Her decades of experience, including 12 years at Beauté Prestige International, and marketing/strategy background make the style-conscious Frenchwoman a driving force in […]
Trafigura, one of the world’s largest commodity traders, has announced a 12 per cent decline in annual profits as challenging market conditions curbed money-making opportunities and it was forced to write down the value of port and rail assets. In the year to September, net profit was $975m, down from just over $1.1bn in 2015 which was a record year for trading the Geneva-based company. In spite […]
Wednesday 06:00 GMT Overview Bourses across Asia were higher, taking their cue from Wall Street’s return to near record highs and rally in Europe led by Italian banks. European bourses are expected to open firmer, with spreadbetters predicting the UK’s FTSE 100 will add 30 points to 6,810 and Germany’s Dax to gain 60 points to 10,835. US index futures suggest the S&P 500 will shed 1 […]
Picture it: rumours of a renminbi devaluation keep growing. Residents rush to open accounts offshore as experts warn Beijing will get off on the wrong foot with a relatively new US administration if a big depreciation happens. Official denials are made regularly — until a devaluation of about 50 per cent follows in short order. That was China in 1994. Today the idea of a similarly brutal, […]
NoHold, a Milpitas, California-based artificial intelligence (AI) company that pioneered chatbots in the 1990s, has launched a “quickstart” platform targeted towards small to medium size businesses (SMBs) and individuals interested in creating virtual assistants quickly, easily, and cheaply. The Sicura Quickstart platform allows SMBs and individuals to create a virtual assistant automatically by uploading word documents, tables, PDFs, and images. No programming or advanced technical skills are […]
“I thought it would be a great opportunity to treat it like a college professor taking a sabbatical,” he said. Continue reading the main story So Thibodeau attended training camp with the Houston Rockets. He sat backstage with the performance troupe known as the Golden State Warriors. He hit the road with the Sacramento Kings. He met with coach after coach, trading ideas and jotting notes on […]
Submitted by William Nardi via TheCollegeFix.com, Be careful what you say at Virginia Tech. Chances are, it could be a microaggression. Multiple groups at Virginia Tech have collaborated to collect “microaggression testimonials” from students, who came up with roughly 50 different expressions that offend them. The examples are currently displayed on the “Microaggressions: #hokiesspeakup” Facebook page. While the campaign lasted through the Spring semester, several posters reminding student […]
Chesapeake Energy, the indebted US energy group that was among the pioneers of the country’s shale revolution, tapped debt markets for the first time in more than two years on Tuesday in a deal that underlined renewed appetite for oil and gas assets. The Oklahoma-based company, which defaulted on some of its obligations this year, secured $1bn in a larger than expected financing to repay as much […]
London’s FTSE 100 stands apart as the global laggard among major stock indices with investors giving it a wide berth almost a month since the election of Donald Trump. The performance reflects concern over Brexit negotiations hurting the shares of companies exposed to the UK economy while the pound’s recent rebound against the dollar and the euro offsets the boost for resource stocks from rising crude and […]
(Image: Google) Google on Tuesday rolled out an update to its Google mobile app for Android and iOS, bringing two main categories into focus — current topics and upcoming events — and getting rid of the traditional Google Now cards. The app was previously one stream of information. Now, the upcoming events tab shows travel, meetings, and important dates from the user’s email and calendar, and the […]
The US Supreme Court has thrown out a $399m patent damages award against Samsung to Apple, in a unanimous verdict in favour of the Korean electronics group. The five-year-old case between the two smartphone market leaders could now continue for much longer, after the justices ordered the lower Federal Circuit court of appeals to reconsider the basis upon which the damages were originally calculated. While the decision does not […]
Hedge fund manager Pierre Andurand has returned almost 15 per cent this year by betting on a recovery in oil prices and he forecasts the rally has further to run after Opec’s agreement last week to cut supplies. The French founder of Andurand Capital, which has grown to be one of the world’s largest oil funds, returned 6.1 per cent in November as he positioned for crude’s […]
