I still remember where I was when the Panama Papers were released to an astonished world. I’d been at a friend’s birthday in Oxford, and I was driving back to London on the Sunday evening. As the T20 cricket World Cup Final reached its conclusion, I pulled into a motorway service station just outside London, ready to celebrate England’s win. Sadly, we managed to snatch defeat from […]
Here are the main questions facing markets as a new trading week and the start of the second quarter beckons. What are the likely drivers?A host of market-moving events confront investors as the calendar flips over to April. These include France’s presidential elections and the opening salvos of the UK’s divorce from the EU. But there is also the prospect of a sustained recovery in global activity, […]
Submitted by Wolf Richter of WolfStreet The Last time automakers tried this was in 2009! In a few days, automakers are going to report their new vehicle deliveries for March. TrueCar, Kelley Blue Book, and LMC Automotive are predicting total vehicle sales slightly above the flat-line compared to March a year ago, though sales were down year-over-year in both January and February. TrueCar forecasts an increase of […]
The new Samsung S8, incorporating its virtual assistant Bixby, seen on display in New York Samsung’s Bixby is the new kid on the block of personal digital assistants and is likely to face a rough reception in a neighborhood dominated by tech sector rivals. Bixby—introduced at Samsung’s unveiling of Galaxy S8 smartphones—aims to help the South Korean giant break into a surging market for voice-activated virtual assistants, […]
Paris: The Panama Papers have given ammunition to the fight against tax evasion, but much still needs to happen before the world’s tax dodgers run out of places to hide money, experts say. The papers, published a year ago, linked some of the world’s most powerful leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and former British prime minister David Cameron, as well as sports stars and billionaires to […]
Image: Vicky Leta/Mashable By Damon Beres2017-04-02 05:26:43 UTC Facebook’s new “Stories” update is here, and it ruins the best part about the entire social network: Mindlessly plumbing your friends’ lives without fear of getting caught. When you watch a friend’s Story — which exists for 24 hours and is comprised of one or more photos or short videos — that friend will know you’re creeping. This is […]
It is fortuitous for Dubai’s new Hollywood-inspired theme park, Motiongate, that the third Smurfs movie, which was released on Thursday, is set entirely in the cutesy toadstool cottages and enchanted forest of the little blue creatures’ homeland, following two films that took place in our world. After all, that is what the park’s Smurfs Village – the area aimed at younger children – is all about: brightly […]
GENEVA: The UN on Friday said “incremental” progress was made during a fifth round of talks between Syria’s warring parties, but warned the “real peace negotiations” had yet to begin.Syrian government and opposition representatives had been “serious and engaged” during the latest nine days of talks in Geneva, UN mediator Staffan de Mistura told reporters.He said all sides were “keen and ready to return to Geneva for […]
Microsoft announced yesterday that it will be opening its third IoT & AI (Internet of Things and artificial intelligence) Insiders Lab. The new lab, located in Munich, Germany is set to open in April and will provide an EMEA point of presence to round out the existing labs in the Americas (Redmond, Wash.) and Asia (Shenzhen, China). Mission possibleThe mission of the labs is to provide facilities […]
More than a third of CEOs in the Middle East say they are very confident about their company’s prospects over the next 12 months, despite global challenges, according to a new survey. PwC’s Annual Global CEO Survey, which interviewed 50 company chiefs in the Middle East, painted a positive, albeit guarded, picture about growth in the region. Thirty-eight percent of CEOs said they are confident about the […]
Based on lab tests conducted in Switzerland, Black Insomnia could be the strongest coffee in the world. It contains 702 milligrams of caffeine per 12-ounce cup, which is far higher when compared to the same amount of Starbucks’ dark roast coffee, which contains only 195 milligrams of coffee . Mary Sweeney, from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, who conducts study on the effects of caffeine, said that Black […]
It can be a lonely business working outside a traditional office environment as a freelancer, independent professional or start-up entrepreneur. Given the costs associated with renting a commercial space, a popular option many choose in those circumstances is to build their empire from home. But while it can save money, this approach has downsides, not least when workers need quick access to a scanner, 3-D printer or […]
Samsung Galaxy S8. Photo by Michael Krigsman. Is it a “work of art” as Samsung described it? Of course not. The Galaxy S8 is no Michelangelo. Samsung is also saying it’s the best design in consumer electronics, and although we shouldn’t take the Korean tech giant’s hyperbole too literally, I for one agree. The unveiling and design of the Galaxy S8, in a lot of ways, is […]
NEW YORK U.S. mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae (FNMA.PK) and Freddie Mac (FMCC.PK) may write down $21 billion of tax-related assets if there is a deep cut in the federal corporate tax rate as promised by President Donald Trump, according to an analyst at BMO Capital Markets on Friday. These assets, known as deferred tax assets, are items such as tax credits that may be used to […]
April Fools’ Day: the best day of the year. Everyone is pranking one another, having a good time, laughing, and nobody is ever annoyed or angry in the slightest. It’s the perfect day! I love pranks and I am always down for a good one. But sometimes the pranks, unfortunately, do not go as planned. Here are four April Fools’ Day pranks I pulled that went very […]
After slamming NBC’s coverage of the “Fake Trump/Russia story”, congratulating the NYTimes for “finally getting it” on Obamacare, Trump on Saturday commented on the previously discussed Fox News story about a “very senior, very well known” U.S. intelligence official who was allegedly involved in unmasking the names of Trump associates, and who had reprotedly surveilled Trump before the nomination. “Wow, @FoxNews just reporting big news. Source: ‘Official […]
DUBAI // The price of items such as cars, televisions and restaurant bills will rise once value-added tax is introduced in the region early next year. But as the tax will be at a modest 5 per cent, experts say it is unlikely to affect overall spending. Details about goods and services to be subject to VAT will probably be released over the next few months, and […]
Didi Chuxing may have defeated Uber, but China’s dominant ride-hailing platform is no match for the country’s local governments after being forced to gut its urban fleet to comply with regulations. Didi’s core business of cheap ride-hailing now faces a tough fight in the big urban markets, which it built after a bruising battle with local and foreign rivals. Uber ceded the Chinese market — its largest — […]
By Rodrigo Campos | NEW YORK NEW YORK Forget the jobs report. The most interesting bit of U.S. economic data next week is Monday’s auto sales release, which will offer a measure of the middle-class consumer and a sector of the stock market that has had a rough ride so far in 2017. Economists are looking for another solid month of sales north of 17 million new […]
Mars used to be wetter and warmer back in the past, and maybe a good candidate for life the way we know it. The scientific explanation is that it lost its atmosphere because of solar wind. In 2013, NASA launched a robotic probe, called MAVEN or Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, in an attempt to address this mystery of the red planet. The spacecraft arrived in the planet’s […]
Once upon a time Washington was simple: on one hand you had Republican interests, on the other: Democrats, and inbetween them perhaps, the occasional independent or “green.” Now… it’s less simple. At last check, DC currently boasts at least nine different parties, groups, factions or ideologies. Which is why keeping track of who wants what, and how the various groups allign, in US politics has become quite […]
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. There is dumb provocative, which we can associate with talk radio and President Trump’s tweets, and there is smart provocative. Nieman Lab offers the latter as it wonders if the media and American banking are soulmates when it comes to […]
Your smartphone is a very versatile tool that contains a huge amount of computational power. By using the right apps and augmenting the smartphone with other hardware you can make it do some very unusual things. Turn your smartphone into a tool to diagnose car problems Got a ‘Check Engine’ light on your dash, staring at you? In the trade that’s called ‘the money light.’ Wonder what […]
By Daniela Desantis | ASUNCION ASUNCION A protester was killed in Paraguay after a secret Senate vote for a constitutional amendment that would allow President Horacio Cartes to run for re-election sparked violent clashes and the country’s Congress was stormed and set alight. Rodrigo Quintana, 25, was killed by a rubber bullet fired by police in the headquarters of the liberal youth activist group, the Paraguayan opposition […]
