On the verge of Donald Trump’s address to Congress, investors have sent the benchmark S&P 500 to record highs. Money managers awaiting word from the new US president on how he will accelerate growth are looking for a reason to maintain their enthusiasm, and for good reason — by a variety of metrics, US share prices are in rare territory. Here are five charts that make bulls […]
February in Romania has brought 27 consecutive days of protests against the current government, at a scale unmatched since the Revolution in 1989. In a record day, more than 600,000 people gathered in the capital’s Victory Square and around the country to overturn a decision by the current ruling party to decriminalize some acts of corruption and abuse of office. This decision was especially self-serving given the […]
Shortly after breaking the Panama Papers, an international exclusive that shed light on illegal offshore banking around the globe, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists should have been riding high. Instead, the scrappy cross-border investigative team was facing the dreary prospect of laying staffers off due to a financial squeeze at its parent organization, the Center for Public Integrity. “I did feel a little deflated,” said Gerard […]
Thousands of ants converge to follow the most direct path from their colony to their food and back. A swarm of inexpensive, unmanned drones quickly map an offshore oil spill. What could these events have in common? Each extremely complex task is accomplished by individuals following very simple rules. But to make the drones do it, a bit of nature’s magic must be captured in a […]
SINGAPORE – The Government spent $800 million on animal management measures last year, said Senior Minister of State for National Development Desmond Lee on Tuesday (Feb 28). The amount includes spending on animal culling, but Mr Lee told Parliament that the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) does not track this amount “as this is only a small part of AVA’s overall work.” Mr Louis Ng (Nee Soon […]
A voracious thirst for petroleum makes the US one of the largest importers of oil. But for the past two weeks it has also scaled the ranks of exporters. Outbound shipments of crude have surpassed 1.2m barrels a day, more than last month’s daily production of Algeria, Ecuador or Qatar, each a member of Opec. The foreign sales underscore how the US has become more integrated into […]
The fact that farm incomes have come under increasing pressure over the past couple of years should come as little surprise to our readers (for those who missed our latest update, see: “Midwest Farm Bubble Continues Collapse As Farm Incomes Expected To Crash In 2017“). Unfortunately, at least according to Bank of America’s Global Ag Chemical team led by Steve Byrne, farmers shouldn’t expect a reprieve any […]
By Steve Holland | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President Donald Trump is seeking what he called a “historic” increase in defense spending, but ran into immediate opposition from Republicans in Congress who must approve his plan and said it was not enough to meet the military’s needs. The proposed rise in the Pentagon budget to $603 billion comes as the United States has wound down major wars in Iraq […]
BEIJING A youth named by China as the second-highest figure in Tibetan Buddhism, but reviled as a fake by many Tibetans, has praised the Communist Party’s religious policies in Tibet in a lunar new year message, saying they made him feel “very happy”. Although officially atheist, China selected Gyaltsen Norbu as the 11th Panchen Lama in 1995 in a drive to win the hearts and minds of […]
By Krishna N. Das | LEDA, Bangladesh LEDA, Bangladesh Rohingya Muslim refugee Ali Hasan is desperately looking for a bride for his 14-year-old son, jailed last year in Bangladesh for carrying the popular drug ya ba. He hopes the girl’s family would pay the $620 needed for Mohammed Hasan’s bail as dowry. Graphic – Ya ba in Bangladesh: here Graphic – Bangladesh/Rohingya relocation: here Graphic – Ya […]
Frictions? Between the press corps and the White House?! Monday’s White House press briefing made Sunday night’s languorous (if now comically notorious) Oscars ceremony look like the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus (absent the elephants). It was all tranquil, rife with policy questions and only one passing reference to Friday’s combo tumult: President Trump trashing the press before an annual gathering of conservatives and Press Secretary […]
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Private launch company SpaceX plans to fly two paying customers on a tourist trip around the moon using a spaceship under development for NASA astronauts and a heavy-lift rocket that has not yet flown, Chief Executive Elon Musk told reporters on Monday. The launch of the first-ever privately funded tourist flight beyond the International Space Station is tentatively targeted for late 2018, Musk told […]
By Deborah Kyvrikosaios | GALAXIDI, GREECE GALAXIDI, GREECE Greek villagers staged a street battle on Monday with bags of colored flour in an annual tradition called the Flour War. The popular event attracts visitors from across the country and overseas to the coastal fishing town of Galaxidi, about 200 km (124 miles) west of Athens. “Clean Monday” celebrations mark the end of carnival season and the beginning […]
The UAE is one of the world’s leading food and beverage markets, worth Dh52.4 billion in 2015, according to global market research group Euromonitor. Dubai alone has about 7,500 places to eat, from street cafes and fast-food outlets to fine-dining and high-end restaurants established by big-name chefs. Many will showcase their best dishes during Dubai Restaurant Week, which ends on Saturday. Click here for our guide. Jean-Luc […]
Roger Federer breezed back into action to reach the second round of the Dubai Open with a straightforward 6-1 6-3 over erratic Frenchman Benoit Paire on Monday. In his first match since memorably claiming his 18th grand slam title by beating Rafael Nadal at the Australian Open a month ago, the 35-year-old was immediately back in the old routine to give Paire the runaround. There was precious […]
When Turkey’s children returned to school in September, there was something new on the curriculum: a week-by-week syllabus, mandated by the minister of education, celebrating what many call Turkey’s “second revolution”. Course materials included two slickly produced patriotic videos laced with references to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s success in putting down the attempted coup on July 15. The first opens with an image of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, […]
In a Facebook post, Barbara Tyler is merciless. “Hey, did anyone think of proofreading your headline today before the paper went to press? I am pretty sure Trump did not replace his vice president. Fake news at its best. Sometimes I wonder why I continue to subscribe to your paper.” Tyler was responding to an extraordinary slip-up by The Bryan College-Station Eagle. The Texas newspaper’s top headline […]
By Steve Holland | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he is seeking a “historic increase” in military spending to be funded by cuts elsewhere in government. Trump will seek to boost Pentagon spending by $54 billion in his first budget proposal and slash the same amount from non-defense spending, including a large reduction in foreign aid, a White House budget official said. “This […]
The UAE is coming of age in the health and fitness arena and this is particularly evident in not only the types of gyms and fitness centres that are opening, but the range of classes on offer too. No longer are fitness fans limited to the below-par gym in their apartment tower or the international chain at their nearest mall. Here’s a roundup of luxurious, unique and […]
In recent weeks, Mauricio Macri, Argentina’s president, has faced a storm of criticism. After failing to condemn an official who offended many when he played down the gravity of Argentina’s military dictatorship, he is now accused of favouritism towards his father’s company in negotiations over the repayment of a $300m debt to the state after a botched privatisation of the post office in the 1990s. But however politically tone […]
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. Anti-Trump fervor is especially rampant along the Acela Corridor, and now our most famous paper surfaces with a provocative — if belated — ad campaign at a time of marketing need. On Thursday, The New York Times announced a campaign […]
LG finally took the wraps off its much-awaited LG G6 on Feb. 26 and the new smartphone packs in some impressive features. The successor of the LG G5 brings in its folds several new features such as a Square camera and FullVision display, but are these sufficient to encourage consumers to upgrade from the older model to the newer LG G6? Here’s a look at the specs […]
Photo Marine Corps jets flew over the pyramids of Egypt during a military exercise in 1999. Credit Staff Sgt. Jim Varhegyi/United States Air Force CAIRO — The top commander of American military operations in the Middle East said during a visit here on Sunday that the United States wanted to resume a major military exercise with Egypt that President Barack Obama had canceled in 2013 to protest […]
Submitted by Alex Gorka via The Strategic Culture Foundation, The rifts within the EU continue to widen as Poland and Hungary join together in opposition to the EU bureaucracy. Soon after Poland’s ultra-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party came to power in October 2015, the Polish parliament passed a law allowing the government to appoint the judges of its choosing to the highest court and not recognize […]
