The National Security Agency can read your email. Verizon knows where you are at all times. Amazon is confident you’re in the market for a new printer. We know these things about the weird world we live in, but few of us ever stop to think about what they really mean. Recently, a group of artists got together in New York City to change that. […]
A round up of some of 2016’s most significant corporate events and news stories. Smartphone sales © EPA A bright start to the year for Samsung Electronicswent up in smoke, after it took the unprecedented decision to axe its Galaxy Note 7 line, following a spate of safety issues that saw the smartphone banned from aircraft, writes Nic Fildes. The 2016 Galaxy Note iteration won substantial praise […]
The vote for Brexit will change the course of Britain’s history, Philip Hammond announced last month. The UK chancellor may be a strident advocate for a soft departure from the EU but he has also been keen to paint a positive picture of the country’s economy, saying the UK’s fundamental strengths will “ensure our future success”. Financial markets are sceptical. The economy may have confounded doom laden […]
Ekster’s smart wallet. Photo: Ekster Wallets and their contents – cash, cards, tickets, receipts etc – will eventually be replaced by smartphones that work with electronic payments system. But while those have been available for years in some countries, most men still carry traditional wallets. That being the case, there should be a market for “smart wallets” that connect to smartphones, so you can find your wallet […]
By Rodrigo Campos | NEW YORK NEW YORK The year-end stocks rally on the heels of the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president was built on expectations of reduced regulations, big tax cuts and a large fiscal stimulus. Now signs are emerging from the Trump camp that harsher trade policies that could jeopardize the honeymoon are likely in the offing, and investors would be well advised […]
On April 7, 14 large blue letters quietly disappeared from the outer walls of an office building in an exclusive neighborhood in northern San Salvador. One by one, the letters came down from the blue and beige stucco walls, leaving behind faint traces of the name of the law firm that had been working there just days before: M-O-S-S-A-C-K-F-O-N-S-E-C-A. Employees of the El Salvador branch of Mossack […]
A hundred years ago, an arms race between the dominant global superpower the (British Empire) and a rising power (Kaiser Wilhelm’s Germany) culminated in the mass slaughter of World War One. The deep mistrust between the United States and the People’s Republic of China has all the potential to spawn a traumatic chapter in international relations. Despite its “pivot” to Asia, the Obama White House was cautious […]
AJMAN // The sight of dozens of malnourished stray cats and kittens on the streets of Ajman was enough to convince Alia Alchamaa to make the 140-kilometre round trip from her home in Dubai each day to help them. The Syrian travels to the corniche and the Al Nuaimia 3, Al Bustan, Al Rashidiya and Mowaihat neighbourhoods feeding as many of the animals as she can, paying […]
Submitted by Federico Pieraccini via Strategic-Culture.org, Understanding the objectives and logic that accompany the expansion of nations or empires is always of paramount importance in helping one draw lessons for the future In this series of four articles I intend to lay a very detailed but easily understandable foundation for describing the mechanisms that drive great powers. To succeed, one must analyze the geopolitical theories that over […]
By Lisa Barrington and Angus McDowall | BEIRUT BEIRUT Syrian rebels shelled Aleppo and air strikes resumed around the city on Friday as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his allies said the insurgents’ withdrawal from the city could pave the way towards a political solution for the country. A day after the last rebels left their remaining pocket of territory in the city, the Syrian Observatory for […]
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. Most of us can feel unavoidably like Mongo in Mel Brooks’ “Blazing Saddles,” meaning a self-perception that “Mongo only pawn in game of life.” (YouTube) Yes, we all try to be philosophical but can lapse into merely being dim-witted, like […]
Wall Street treaded water in light pre-holiday trading on Friday, with the three major indexes on track to post weekly gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which came within spitting distance of the historic 20,000 mark earlier this week, looked set to record its seventh straight weekly gains. “There’s really nothing to move the market one way or another,” said Mohannad Aama, managing director at Beam Capital […]
Thousands of men, women and children from Myanmar’s Rohingya minority have fled the country over what the army is calling a crackdown on insurgents. A Wall Street Journal article examines the intensification of a long-simmering conflict between Yangon and the Rohingya Muslims, who are denied citizenship in the predominantly Buddhist Southeast Asian state. Here is a short history of the Rohingya people. 8th Century: The Rohingya, a […]
Shortly after the Berlin truck terrorism suspect Anis Amri was killed in a shoot out with Milan police, railway tickets found on Amri’s body showed he had traveled from Chambery in south-eastern France to Turin and then on to Milan, according to Italy’s Ansa. Which is strange because while he kept ticket stubs, he had virtually nothing else on him: Milan police said Amri was carrying few […]
Good morning. A media A-list’s favorite books of 2016 Jake Tapper, the CNN reporter-show host, needed far less time than even a hyperactive wire service rewrite guy to answer a question about his favorite book this year: “‘Moonglow’ by Michael Chabon.” Bam, that didn’t take long. But it’s why amid a Trump- and-terrorism-centric moment, I asked busy and smart journalists to go high when so many others […]
By Michael Shields and Arno Schuetze | ZURICH/FRANKFURT ZURICH/FRANKFURT Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank have been hit with a combined penalty of more than $12 billion over the sale of U.S. toxic debt, further hampering two of Europe’s leading investment banks as they grapple with falling profits. The penalty puts them at a further disadvantage to larger U.S. rivals. Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) agreed in principle to pay […]
By James Pearson | SEOUL SEOUL As hundreds of thousands of South Koreans poured into the streets every weekend for two months to call for President Park Geun-hye to resign, the opposition’s leading contender to replace her appeared reluctant to seize the moment. That is changing as Moon Jae-in, a 63-year-old human rights lawyer who lost the 2012 election to Park by more than a million votes, […]
Dec 23, 2016 10:30 am IST Sri Lanka is getting ready to join dozens of other countries that have broken festive records by building the world’s tallest artificial Christmas tree. A Wall Street Journal article explains why the tree nearly didn’t get made. Below are a few other holiday records that remain unbroken, according to the Guinness World Records. Tallest artificial tree Sri Lanka looks set to […]
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 could be a dinner akin to the disastrous ones in “Meet the Parents,” “Talladega Nights” and “Wedding Crashers.” Or maybe “American Beauty,” where newly unemployed Kevin Spacey turns to his wife (Annette Bening) and daughter (Thora Birch) and says […]
Friday 02:50 GMT Overview Asian markets not already shut for the holidays went into retreat, following a negative lead from Wall Street as investors took a breather ahead of the Christmas break. Hot topic Most major global stock markets were on track to finish December in the black, continuing the rally set off by Donald Trump’s presidential election victory in early November. In Asia, Japanese equities have […]
The last several years have been dynamic ones in the world of patents, a trend that’s likely to continue as the Patent and Trademark Office comes under the leadership of the Trump administration. Outgoing PTO director Michelle K. Lee recently shared with The Wall Street Journal her thoughts about notable legal and policy developments during […] (via WSJ)
By Lucia Mutikani | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. consumer spending increased modestly in November as household income failed to rise for the first time in nine months, suggesting the economy slowed in the fourth quarter after growing briskly in the prior period. The economy, however, remains on solid footing as other data on Thursday showed new orders for capital goods rising last month amid demand for machinery, indicating […]
As Uber Technologies Inc. battles to conquer India’s ride-sharing market, it is aiming to add a million new drivers to its platform, as detailed Thursday in a Wall Street Journal article. The ridesharing industry in the South Asian nation is already worth over a billion dollars a year between Uber and its main rival, Ola, and that figure could more than double in the next three years, according […]
According to the Facebook page, Mrs. Elyakim was originally from Haifa, attended Galilee High School in Tiberias and studied at Ohalo College, which trains teachers. In August 2009, she posted a series of pictures from Berlin, including shots of the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, remnants of the Berlin Wall and an old Allied checkpoint, although those images evidently came from a previous winter, since some included Christmas […]
