The early idealism of the Internet was imagined as some great network that would somehow free the world’s oppressed people and lead to a grand utopian future. All the world’s information would be available at the touch of a button, greater participation in government by the people would be easy, and so on. None of this has happened or will happen. Instead, the American public […]
SHARJAH // Families of heroes who died in the line of duty on Wednesday took solace as the nation united to honour their loved ones. Across the country, UAE flags were flown at half mast from 8am until 11.30am, after which a minute’s silence was observed. Fahd Al Habsi, the uncle of Lt Rashid Al Habsi who died in September while serving in the Arab coalition’s Operation […]
Nestlé said it had found a process to naturally reduce sugar content by as much as 40 per cent in what the maker of Kit Kats claims is a first for the industry, as pressure to produce healthier drinks and snacks ratchets up amid an obesity epidemic. The world’s largest food and drinks company said on Wednesday that it was securing a patent for its innovation and […]
DUBAI // Lights are being hammered in and a trampoline and bungee wall installed as workmen put the finishing touches to a new theatre and stage show. The new venue is part of the soon-to-open Motiongate Dubai theme park, which will be hosting a show based on the last two instalments of the dance-film franchise Step Up. About 3,000 performers have been auditioned in casting calls around […]
By Angus McDowall and Tom Perry | BEIRUT BEIRUT Syrian rebels on Wednesday vowed to fight on in east Aleppo in the face of sudden government advances that have cut the area held by the opposition by a third in recent days and brought insurgents in the city to the brink of a catastrophic defeat. Gains by the Syrian army and its allies since last week have […]
Steven Mnuchin made his fortune by swooping in to buy IndyMac, one of the biggest casualties of the mortgage crisis, then selling it for more than twice what he paid five years later. But to Kevin Stein, deputy director of the California Reinvestment Coalition, a housing advocacy group, it sticks in the craw to see him nominated by Donald Trump to serve as the 77th US Treasury […]
Salvatore Ferragamo is often mistaken for his iconic fashion designer grandfather and founder of the Salvatore Ferragamo fashion brand, who became known after his shoes because a must-have in Hollywood for actresses such as Katherine Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe. Eighty-nine years later, Ferragamo’s grandson is nowhere near the fashion house. Instead, he heads the family’s $680m hospitality estate in Tuscany, Il Borro. The 700 hectares historic hillside […]
Thanks to mysteriously escalating prices, channels you don’t want, and a lack of competitive options, cable TV and Internet companies are widely hated in the US. Cord cutting is supposed to save us from at least some of that. But AT&T’s new DirecTV Now plan just transplants the cable model into the cord-cutter world. It’s full of traps and pitfalls for consumers, the biggest of […]
Ulster Bank Parent RBS Fails Bank of England Stress Test “Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS)(RBS.L) will cut costs and sell assets to boost capital levels, it said on Wednesday after failing this year’s Bank of England stress test, which warned of a “challenging” outlook for Britain’s financial system. The state-backed lender rushed out a statement following the announcement to say it would take a range of actions, including […]
SHARJAH // Soldiers, students, police and taxi drivers were just some of those calling into the Sharjah Blood Transfusion and Research Centre in the build up to National Day celebrations to give blood to those who need it most. The centre extended its opening hours from 8am to 8pm for the public holiday to encourage more people to visit the clinic and top up the nation’s blood […]
Twenty-nine-year-old Nadja Spiegelman’s mother Françoise Mouly – the French-born art director of The New Yorker and children’s publisher – was a formidable but unconventional caregiver. She decried “timid women who washed their vegetables”, took her children (Spiegelman has a younger brother) swimming in the ocean during thunderstorms and made them eat dirt to build up their immune systems. Luminous and magnetic, she held her offspring safely in […]
Pakistan’s small, tight-knit, Somali community was in shock this week after hearing of the violent rampage of one of its former members in the U.S. Abdul Razak Ali Artan, who was shot and killed Monday after allegedly attacking fellow students in Ohio, lived for several years in Islamabad with his family, until he moved to the U.S. in 2014. According to police, he jumped a curb in […]
The metal-clad Samsung Galaxy J7 Prime which was released in September this year in select Asian markets is now available for purchase in the United States. Announced in August, the Samsung phablet is now listed on e-retailer Amazon and is up for grabs for just $285 plus shipping charges of $4.85. The Galaxy J7 Prime model that is available for purchase in the United States via Amazon […]
Photo Mahmoud Abbas, third from right, the Palestinian Authority president, at a Fatah party conference on Tuesday in Ramallah, West Bank. Credit Presidential Office, via Reuters RAMALLAH, West Bank — Under fire at home and abroad, President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority moved on Tuesday to solidify his decade-long hold on power with a party conference that had already been purged of most of his opponents. […]
Replicas of R$100,00 banknotes are hung on a clothesline during a protest of the national union of prosecutors against money laundering in Brazil, at the Esplanade of Ministries in Brasilia March 18, 2015 (Reuters/Ueslei Marcelino). The Brazilian Federal Revenue Secretariat (SRF) has some good news to cheer: a big haul of fines and taxes from assets held offshore by Brazilians. The deadline for filing under Brazil’s equivalent […]
In this year’s election, the most powerful news source was Facebook. More than 40 percent of US adults—that’s more than watch any single TV channel—get their news from Facebook, according to Pew, and as plenty of journalists have recounted, the platform is flooded with hyperpartisan fake news. Yet Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook’s leadership refuse to own up to their responsibility for our politics. Zuckerberg argued […]
Identity and access management is on the cusp of changes that will help define its overall role in enterprise security, adapt it to meet new access requirements, and combine it with security tools to form protection that extends to devices, cloud services and customer identification. This evolution was outlined Tuesday during the opening keynote at the Gartner Identity and Access Management Summit in Las Vegas. “The undercurrent […]
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon on Tuesday blamed “unintentional” human mistakes for the American-led airstrikes in September that killed dozens of Syrian government troops. The attacks were conducted under the “good-faith belief” that the targets were Islamic State militants, according to the official inquiry. The investigation, led by an Air Force general, concluded that the strikes did not violate the law of armed conflict or the rules for […]
Privacy is the pull, but that’s hardly the only draw to a private island. There’s something about the prospect of having a world within the world to yourself – and the people you choose to have along with you there – that takes you back to the intense childhood fun of creating a secret hideaway. A den, a clubhouse, a place that feels like it belongs outside […]
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon addresses the Annual Conference of Swiss Developement Cooperation in Zurich, Switzerland January 22, 2016. On the screen behind are displayed the 17 goals of UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Reuters/Arnd Wiegmann). Emerging Voices highlights new research, thinking, and approaches to development challenges from contributing scholars and practitioners. This post is from Niklas Kossow, communications officer for the European Union FP7 ANTICORRP […]
This Christmas, tuck into the turkey but go easy on the pudding. Britons are facing a jump in prices for traditional pudding ingredients as the Brexit vote has sharply weakened the pound. However, the cost of Christmas dinners is almost unchanged from a year ago despite a rise in pork and vegetables. The slumping pound has helped push up the cost of key ingredients for Christmas pudding […]
For six and a half years, Donald Trump battled fraud allegations against his now-defunct Trump University, claiming it duped students into thinking they’d get personal access to the real estate mogul and the secrets to his success. After both sides vowed to go to trial, the litigation settled for $25 million the week before Thanksgiving, days before a trial was set to begin in San Diego. As part of the […]
5825 25 by Shannon K. O’Neil November 4, 2016 DATE IMPORTED:November 02, 2016Protestors call for the removal of President Jacob Zuma outside court in Pretoria, South Africa, November 2, 2016 (Reuters/Mike Hutchings). Report May Bring Down South Africa’s President New allegations may finally bring down teflon president Jacob Zuma. Despite his earlier legal protests, South Africa’s public protector’s office released a report suggesting that a wealthy family close […]
By Jonathan Stempel Shmaltz Brewing Co says some of its beer names, including several with Jewish themes, “can be a bit unorthodox.” Now a large California winery wants one of those names to be reformed. Sutter Home Winery Inc sued Shmaltz late on Monday, accusing the brewery of infringing its “Menage a Trois” trademark by selling a 12-pack of its beers with the “MANNAge a Trois” name. […]
