Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; December 30, 2017 As the 10th anniversary year of Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company, draws to a close, industry watchers can reflect on 12 months that have marked a historic milestone for the company and a pivotal moment for the renewable energy sector as a whole. During the decade since Masdar was established, the UAE has cemented a global reputation for […]
Chinese netizens are mourning the demise of a popular online talk show that dared to tackle social and political topics in a media landscape dominated by vapid soap operas, staid costume dramas and webcam girls. The final episode of “Xiaosong-pedia“, hosted by songwriter, music producer and film director Gao Xiaosong, was aired on Friday on iQiyi, the online video platform owned by internet search group Baidu. The show received […]
A poll of 60 staff members of The National resulted in useful travel hacks, such as low-fare flights with flexible date options, hassle-free packing, and convenient add-ons, that can make your holiday a more cheerful, potentially cheaper experience. newslide Be flexible The prices of flights and hotel rooms varies a lot depending on demand, so compare prices, choose less busy dates and even be willing to alter […]
The two-state solution would establish an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel — two states for two peoples. In theory, this would win Israel security and allow it to retain a Jewish demographic majority (letting the country remain Jewish and democratic) while granting the Palestinians a state. Continue reading the main story Most governments and world bodies have set achievement of the two-state solution as official policy, including […]
If the loftier visions of Silicon Valley’s most ambitious internet companies turn into reality, the stratosphere is about to become a very crowded place. Amazon has joined the sky-bound dreamers with an idea that sounds like it has been drawn straight from the pages of science fiction: airship warehouses floating high above the clouds, feeding a fleet of drones that whisk purchases straight to the buyer. The […]
How do big data people go about making end-of-year reviews and predictions? Using data is the obvious answer, but there’s a few issues with that approach: there is no synthesis in data alone — you have to find the story behind data, pick an angle and seek meaning. In addition, that approach does not account for subtle hints, industry knowledge, and big ideas. To paraphrase Carl Sagan, […]
On October 17, every employee at Dentsu — Japan’s biggest advertising agency and arguably the country’s most influential company — received the same, catastrophic-sounding message from the company’s president, Tadashi Ishii. “The approved way of working at our company cannot be accepted by stakeholders, including the authorities,” said the memo, according to media reports. Coming a month after Dentsu was caught overbilling hundreds of clients, and just […]
M&A: back with a bang Deal activity was vigorous with much of it concentrated just below the level of the industry’s biggest companies. Nasdaq bought International Securities Exchange for $1.1bn, while CBOE Holdings announced a $3.2bn deal for Bats Global Markets in September. Of most significance, the pending €24bn tie-up between London’s LSE Group and Deutsche Börse, which will create Europe’s largest exchange. As the chart above […]
By Jamie McGeever | LONDON LONDON European shares, the dollar and bond yields fell on Thursday, with traders using the quiet holiday period to book some profit on the rise that had lifted all three to multi-year and in some cases record highs recently. Weakness in European financial stocks helped push broader indices into the red, extending the slippage after soft U.S. housing data the previous day. […]
A new study just released from Public Health England concludes that 4 out of 5 Brits between the ages of 40 – 60 are fat, lazy and/or alcoholics, characteristics which the study shockingly found to be having an adverse effect on the group’s long-term health. The study, which compared data collected from 40 – 60 year olds between 2011 – 2013 to similar data collected 20 years […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| There is a greater national focus on achieving operational efficiency across sectors in the Middle East – and one notable area that stands to benefit immensely from embracing digitally-enabled solutions is utilities, Booz Allen Hamilton says in its energy trend forecasts for 2017. Change continues to be the defining feature of the global energy sector in 2017. In the oil and gas industry, […]
This year has been tough-going in more ways than one and, by most accounts, Singapore’s economy is expected to be heading for rougher seas in 2017. According to a survey by the Singapore Business Federation, 63 percent of local companies said the economic climate worsened in 2016 and 48 percent believed the downward spiral would continue in the new year. The Monetary Authority of Singapore also warned […]
Two years ago, James Garstang, a brewer at the Kernel Brewery, one of London’s most popular microbreweries, was approached by a friend about an opportunity abroad. “He said: ‘If you are interested in some karma and curry, then I have a potential job for you,’” Mr Garstang recalls. Less than a month later, the Londoner was living and working in Gwalior, a midsized city in India five […]
This July 29, 2015, file photo shows Amazon’s Echo speaker, which responds to voice commands, in New York. A prosecutor investigating the death of a man whose body was found in a hot tub wants to expand the probe to include a potential new kind of evidence: the suspect’s Amazon Echo smart speaker. Amazon has called the request “overbroad or otherwise inappropriate.” (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File) Authorities […]
Saudi Arabia’s austerity measures will weigh heavily on consumer spending in 2017 with households cutting back on “non-essential” expenses, according to BMI Research. In its latest country report, the Fitch Group firm reiterated its previous forecasts that the kingdom’s economy would fall into recession next year, as fiscal consolidation and oil production cuts impact economic activity. It forecasts real gross domestic product (GDP) growth to decline by […]
While the opening of the archives was not expected to provide a conclusive end to the chapter for many of the families, given the partial and sometimes contradictory information in the files, the government hoped to at least dispel the notion that it was hiding information, and to perhaps bring some relief. Continue reading the main story “Today we are correcting an historic injustice of disregard or […]
By Lesley Wroughton and Yeganeh Torbati | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warned on Wednesday that Israel’s building of settlements in occupied territory was endangering Middle East peace, expressing unusually frank frustration with the longtime American ally. In a swiftly issued statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Kerry of showing bias. He said Israel did not need to be lectured to by foreign […]
Submitted by Nick Cunningham via OilPrice.com, Natural gas prices are surging as cold weather eats into U.S. inventories, tightening the market much more quickly than many analysts had expected. The blast of Arctic weather in December put a strain on natural gas markets, with millions of people cranking up the heat to keep warm. The EIA reported a surprise drop in storage levels in the week ending […]
By Orhan Coskun and Ellen Francis | ANKARA/BEIRUT ANKARA/BEIRUT Turkey and Russia have prepared an agreement for a ceasefire in Syria, Turkey’s foreign minister said on Wednesday, adding that Ankara would not give up its opposition to President Bashar al-Assad staying on as leader. The five-year-old Syrian civil war raged on, with heavy casualties reported in the siege of a town held by Islamic State, and the […]
The FTSE 100 was within touching distance of a closing high on Wednesday, as optimism about the outlook for metal prices lifted the shares of the heavyweight miners on Britain’s blue-chip index. On the market’s first day back after the Christmas holiday, the FTSE 100 was up 0.6 per cent at 7107.56 in early afternoon trading, putting it on track to surpass its closing high of 7103.98 […]
AMMAN Syria’s main rebel groups were discussing with Turkey a ceasefire proposal being negotiated with Russia but had rejected Moscow’s demand to exclude a rebel stronghold near the capital from any deal, a senior rebel official said on Wednesday. Munir al Sayal, the head of the political wing of Ahrar al Sham, whose group is involved in the talks with Turkey, said it was premature to talk […]
By Andrew Osborn and Orhan Coskun | MOSCOW/ANKARA MOSCOW/ANKARA Syria would be divided into informal zones of regional power influence and Bashar al-Assad would remain president for at least a few years under an outline deal between Russia, Turkey and Iran, sources say. Such a deal, which would allow regional autonomy within a federal structure controlled by Assad’s Alawite sect, is in its infancy, subject to change […]
DOHA A leading Bahraini activist was granted bail on Wednesday after months of detention while facing trail over a series of tweets. Nabeel Rajab, founder of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, said on his Twitter account he had been released after a court hearing on Wednesday and would appear in court again on Jan. 23. There was no immediate comment from Bahraini authorities. Rajab was arrested […]
Even as the Singapore economy is projected to see worsening economic climate next year, local businesses appear unwilling to transform to cope with the changing environment. Just 15 percent of small and midsize businesses (SMBs) and 36 percent of large enterprises strongly agreed with the need to transform to adapt to slowing economic growth as well as technological change and disruption. Across the board, 62 percent agreed […]
