The directive to identify new ways to hasten the demise of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL, has been widely anticipated by military commanders, who have begun drafting classified options to increase the pressure on the militant group, especially in Raqqa and Mosul, the stronghold in Iraq. Continue reading the main story Work on the directive was described by several current and former officials […]
The Dow Jones Industrial Average stayed firmly above 20,000 on Thursday, after breaching the milestone a day earlier, while losses in tech stocks weighed on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite indexes. The S&P technology index’s .SPLRCT 0.47 fall led the decliners, weighed down by Qualcomm (QCOM.O) and Alphabet (GOOGL.O). Qualcomm fell 5.1 percent to $54.04 after the chipmaker reported a lower-than-expected rise in quarterly revenue. […]
Some of hedge fund billionaire George Soros’ short positions dating back to 2012 were published on the Dutch financial market regulator’s website this week due to “human error” according to the regulator AFM, according to Bloomberg. Dutch bank ING is among the positions exposed and its stock price is tumbling… As Bloomberg notes, the short positions, bets on a stock declining, were “between 0.2 percent and 0.5 […]
|By Matein Khalid| The election of a Manhattan property developer and (failed) casino owner as President of the United State has not been positive for most American real estate investment trusts (REIT’s). The sharp rise in US interest rates since the election and the Federal Reserve’s vigilance against inflation risk hits this classic “bond proxy” sector, with its reliance on leverage to boost investor returns. In addition, […]
January 26, 2017 by: Eric Platt and Joe Rennison in New York The combination of rebounding commodity prices and hopes for faster US economic growth under Donald Trump is helping some of the riskiest corporate borrowers secure cheaper financing and underlines investors’ growing stomach for risk. An expanding list of companies with a triple-C rating — deep within speculative territory — have been able to lock in […]
Mashreq, Dubai’s third-biggest bank by assets, reported a 20.7 percent fall in fourth-quarter net profit on Wednesday, its sixth quarter in a row of falling profits, as fees and commission slipped and impairment allowances jumped. The lender made a net profit of 441 million dirhams ($120 million) in the three months to Dec. 31, it said in a statement, down from 556 million dirhams recorded for the […]
Submitted by James Durso via RealClearDefense.com, Ukraine’s government has hired Washington lobbyists to fix its problems with the Trump Administration, but would do better to fix its internal problems, instead. Ukraine’s problems are in four categories: a structural problem caused by the multiple overlapping entities involved in military strategy and procurement; the absence of a unified strategic vision for ordering equipment and supplies; a “Fifth Column” of […]
The true subject of science fiction is always the present. Its imagined futures are mirrors to today’s hopes and fears. George Orwell’s 1984 simply shifted the numbers of the year in which he wrote the book – 1948 – and made a metaphor of that time’s dark politics. Likewise 2084, the latest from Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal, is addressed to, and in some way is part of, […]
China is progressing well and stands on the same starting point as other economic powers in the quantum computing arena, but local organisations still fall behind their western counterparts in research experience. China in recent years had begun investing in quantum technology, initiating several national projects in quantum communications and computation. And it seemed likely to continue its investment in future, said Andrew Yao, a Turing Award […]
Earlier today, the New York Times published a 3-page draft of an executive order, allegedly penned by the Trump administration, entitled “Detention and Interrogation of Enemy Combatants.” According to the NYT, which “obtained” the document from an anonymous source, the executive order seeks to, among other things, reopen overseas CIA “black site” prisons that Obama ordered closed in 2009. More specifically, the draft order would revoke two […]
Tribune Media CEO Peter Liguori is leaving Tribune Media after three years leading the TV news and entertainment company. Liguori, who will step down in March, said in a statement his decision to exit the company that needed “a new leader” to navigate the broadcast-centric corporation. Tribune Media — then known as Tribune Company — spun off its newspapers into a separate company, Tribune Publishing, in 2014. Its […]
Wednesday 14:35 GMT Overview Major global stock markets are rallying as the Dow Jones Industrial Average breaches 20,000 amid revived hopes for faster US growth. Benchmark sovereign bonds yields are rising, but oil and gold prices are moving lower despite a weaker dollar. Hot topic The “Trump trade” is back on and it has the Dow through 20,000 for the first time? The average, though a price-weighted […]
All but one of the students were enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, also known as DACA. Created in 2012 by an Obama-administration executive action, DACA allowed teenagers and young adults who came to the United States illegally as children with their parents to register with the government and in turn receive a two-year renewable protection against deportation, along with work permits and Social […]
No, Mark Zuckerberg is not running for president. This came straight from the horse’s mouth after days of media speculation about the Facebook mogul’s political ambition. In a statement sent to BuzzFeed, Zuckerberg stated that he is focused on building the Facebook community and working on the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Note how the word “never” was not mentioned at all, providing him wiggle room in case he […]
By Tetsushi Kajimoto | TOKYO TOKYO Japan’s exports rose for the first time in 15 months in December on strong sales of electronics and car parts, a positive sign for the export-reliant economy even as U.S. protectionism threatens to hurt trade across the region and dent external demand. Ministry of Finance data showed on Wednesday that exports rose 5.4 percent year-on-year in December, compared with a 1.2 […]
Photo The Golden State Warriors lined up on Monday night during their 105-102 loss to a struggling Miami Heat team. Credit Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images When the Golden State Warriors added the superstar Kevin Durant to the greatest regular-season team in N.B.A. history, the general reaction was that the season was effectively over. Fans, sportswriters and even opposing players began to speculate on how many more titles the […]
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. A fashionista friend in the White House press corps answered this lingering question after Sean Spicer’s much-anticipated first briefing: What exactly was the glaring color of that jacket worn by Kellyanne Conway? “Tomato?” she guessed. Well, it was especially vivid […]
Johnson & Johnson, the world’s largest healthcare company, blamed a stronger dollar as it forecast that 2017 profits and sales would fall below Wall Street expectations, sending the group’s shares down by more than 2 per cent. Dominic Caruso, chief financial officer, said it appeared that many Wall Street analysts had not updated their models to account “for the negative impacts of currency movement” as J&J became […]
ABU DHABI // Residents of the capital woke up to rain on Tuesday morning as the country’s prayers were answered. Thunderstorms and strong winds causing blowing dust have been forecast for southeastern areas of the country with Al Ain most likely to experience regular, thundery showers throughout the day. Abu Dhabi could also catch a heavy shower later in the day with road users urged to plan […]
By Ian Simpson | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON A powerful storm system plowed up the U.S. Eastern seaboard with torrential showers and high winds on Monday, hindering airline and rail travel, after killing at least 21 people in the South, many in mobile homes demolished by tornadoes. The storm, which unleashed deadly twisters in Mississippi and Georgia over the weekend, turned cooler as it advanced on the Northeast, where […]
Generali, Italy’s largest insurer, has bought voting rights amounting to 3.01 per cent in Intesa Sanpaolo in a defensive move designed to block a mooted takeover bid by the country’s largest bank. The move came after shares in the insurer rose nearly 4 per cent on Monday following a report in Turin-based newspaper La Stampa suggesting Intesa was considering a takeover bid in tandem with Germany’s Allianz. […]
The lead government negotiator, Bashar al-Jaafari, speaking to reporters after the opening session, responded by calling the opposition delegation “armed terrorist groups,” and accused them of “impertinent” and “provocative” behavior. Continue reading the main story The tension demonstrated the challenges that remain for Russia, the Syrian government’s most powerful backer, as the Russian government tries to show its approach can accomplish more than the largely fruitless efforts […]
By Michael Georgy | MOSUL, Iraq MOSUL, Iraq Mohamed Mahmoud is relieved he no longer has to watch Islamic State militants hang corpses from electricity poles, now that Iraqi forces have cleared the group from his east Mosul district. But he still fears for his safety. Like other Iraqis, he worries that destructive forces like sectarianism, which already provoked one civil war since the fall of Saddam […]
Doha Bank, Qatar’s fifth-largest lender by assets, reported a 84.8 percent decline in fourth-quarter net profit on Sunday, according to Reuters calculations, missing analyst expectations. The bank earned a net profit of 35 million riyals ($9.61 million) in the three months to Dec. 31 against 231.4 million riyals in the same period of the previous year, Reuters calculations showed, using financial statements in lieu of a quarterly […]
