PARIS French centrist Emmanuel Macron is on course to come out on top of the first round of France’s presidential election next month and go on to win in the May 7 runoff against far right leader Marine Le Pen, an Elabe poll showed on Wednesday. Macron, a popular independent who served as economy minister under President Francois Hollande, would win 25.5 percent of the vote in […]
DUBAI // A chef kidnapped a six-year-old girl and sexually assaulted her, a court was told on Wednesday. Prosecutors said the 21-year-old Egyptian defendant told the Jordanian girl that he would take her to a play area in the residential tower in Jebel Ali. But, once on the quiet staircase, he allegedly molested her. The incident was said to have happened on a Friday morning in December […]
By Maria Tsvetkova and Maria Vasilyeva | MOSCOW MOSCOW Russian high school student Roman Shingarkin had some explaining to do when he got home after becoming one of the faces of anti-Kremlin protests at the weekend. His father is a former member of parliament who supports President Vladimir Putin. At the height of a protest in Moscow on Sunday against what organisers said was official corruption, 17-year-old […]
When Charles Li was asked last week about the recent wild gyrations of some stocks in Hong Kong, the head of the Hong Kong Exchange compared the market to a city that is reasonably well-run but has “a few dark alleys and little corners”. “We all need to relax,” he added. “This is a great market. You don’t want the regulator to solve all your problems.” Investors […]
By Francesco Guarascio | BRUSSELS BRUSSELS The European Parliament said in a draft position paper on Wednesday that Brexit can be revoked. The draft, seen by Reuters on the day that Article 50 on Britain’s leaving the European Union was invoked also said there should be transitional arrangements to smooth the divorce but no more than three years. London-based EU agencies, the European Banking Authority and 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. Donald Trump is temporary ratings gold, which is either evidence of renewed civic engagement or merely the decline of Western civilization. Variety reports that Fox News “finished far and above its competition in the ratings for the first quarter of […]
So much flip-flopping from Dennis Gartman in just the past week, it is enough to make one’s head spin. After missing Friday’s move lower, on Monday morning Gartman said he was actively looking to “re-establish net short positions” when S&P futures were sharply lower to which we said “at the rate the S&P is covering its opening losses, he should be able “find a point” where the […]
Bloomberg suffered its second-ever drop in the number of ubiquitous terminals dotting global trading desks as it fell victim to cost cutting by the finance industry. The number of Bloomberg’s distinctive black terminals, used daily by bankers, traders and money managers, fell by 3,145 last year to just under 324,500, down nearly 1 per cent from 2015, according to a report on Tuesday from Burton-Taylor International, one […]
By Panarat Thepgumpanat and Patpicha Tanakasempipat | BANGKOK BANGKOK Thailand’s military government is working on a law to help regulate Buddhism, officials say, giving the junta far more say over a pillar of Thai society that has so far eluded its control. The proposed bill, which has not been made public, would appear to significantly reduce the say of the Sangha Supreme Council, Buddhism’s governing body in Thailand. […]
Square Enix has pushed Final Fantasy XIV closer to free-to-play territory with the removal of the 14-day limit on the trail version of the MMORPG. The removal of the time limit of the Final Fantasy XIV trial comes just as Square Enix prepares to release Stormblood, the next expansion for the game. ‘Final Fantasy XIV’ Trial No Longer Has 14-Day Limit The release of the latest patch for Final […]
A mega-merger of the two biggest banks in the UAE should leave the combined company with a larger representation on the benchmark emerging-market index, triggering hundreds of millions of dollars of inflows to the stock, according to calculations by EFG-Hermes strategists. Thursday marks the last day of trading in First Gulf Bank before its combination with National Bank of Abu Dhabi in a deal that creates the […]
After nine months’ gestation, the Brexit process has started. Both sides of the referendum have political points; Brexiters can say the UK economy is growing and there has been no market implosion, while Remainers can say UK assets have drastically underperformed the rest of the world, and the costs of the historic sterling devaluation are yet to be counted. Now, it is time to work out what […]
If you’re a Cuban focused on visiting the United States for tourism of business purposes, it’s probably going to be a case of “close but no cigar”. As Statista’s Nial McCarthy notes, even though relations between Washington and Havanna have improved hugely over the past few months, Cuba still has the highest rate of U.S. visa refusal of any country worldwide. According to U.S. State Department data, 81.9 percent of […]
This originally ran in our weekly newsletter Local Edition. You can join the conversation here. A few months ago, my son, Max, got me thinking about adaptation. “Everything is different!” the 9-year-old blustered from the back seat after his Kindle finished updating. “I can’t find anything now!” “That stinks,” I told him. But it’s also good practice, I said, for a skill that younger people figure out […]
If meat was handled in the same fashion as broadband in Australia, barbeques would be a lot less popular. Imagine a situation where there is a single government-owned cattle farmer, the weirdly spelled National BoviNe (NBN), and you know of its existence because there are always ads on TV and buses telling you to eat more meat, but consumers are told to continue purchasing meat from butchers, […]
Chinese social media company Tencent has purchased a 5 percent stake in Tesla for $1.78 billion, providing a boost to the company as it prepares for the launch of the Model 3 mass-market electric vehicle. The shares of Tesla increased by 2.7 percent to $277.45 upon the announcement of Tencent’s investment, with the company now close to overthrowing Ford as the second most valuable automobile company in the […]
Photo The bodies of several people killed during fighting between Iraqi security forces and Islamic State militants on the western side of Mosul, Iraq, on Friday. Credit Felipe Dana/Associated Press GENEVA — Airstrikes against Islamic State fighters are killing so many civilians that Iraq and its American-led coalition of allies should reconsider their tactics, the top human rights official at the United Nations said on Tuesday. Zeid […]
Wednesday 04:40 GMT Overview Asian markets were mixed, with energy stocks benefiting from a recovery in crude oil prices, while the UK pound dropped after Prime Minister Theresa May dispatched the letter that will trigger Britain’s exit from the EU. Hot topic The pound weakened 0.3 per cent to $1.2409 in Asia trade, bringing its losses over the past two sessions to 1.2 per cent, in response […]
The United States Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security has removed Chinese telecommunications technology solutions provider ZTE from its trading blacklist following the company pleading guilty to illegally exporting products to Iran. “Upon recommendation by BIS, the company and ZTE Kangxun Telecommunications Ltd will be removed from the Entity List on 29 March 2017 (United States time),” ZTE said in a statement [PDF] to the […]
Authored by Lauren McCauley via TheAntiMedia.org, Privacy advocates on Monday are urging Americans to call their elected officials, warning that there are only 24 hours left to “save online privacy rules” before the U.S. House of Representatives votes on a measure that would allow major telecom companies to collect user data and auction it off to the “highest bidder.” Wasting no time, the House is expected to […]
Your daily guide to community and cultural activities across the Emirates for March 29, 2017, including performances, festivals, art exhibitions, film screenings, health and fitness events, talks, classes, workshops and family fun. Ellen Fortini rounds up 10 things to do today in the UAE. Want to see your event listed here? Email us with the details and contact information at [email protected] newslide Abu Dhabi Family workshop Book […]
By Valerie Volcovici and Jeff Mason | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an order to undo Obama-era regulations to curb climate change, keeping a campaign promise to support the coal industry while calling into question U.S. support for an international deal to fight global warming. Flanked by coal miners, Trump enacted his “Energy Independence” executive order at the Environmental Protection Agency. A coalition of […]
WASHINGTON — The F.B.I. on Tuesday arrested two Iraqi refugees living in Northern Virginia after they failed to disclose that one of their brothers had been involved in the 2004 kidnapping of an American contractor in Iraq. The refugees, Yousif Al Mashhandani, 35, of Vienna, Va., and Adil Hasan, 38, of Burke, Va., admitted to the F.B.I. that they did not tell the authorities about their brother […]
After the biggest downturn in a generation, there are reasons to think the worst of the commodities slump might be over. The Financial Times’s Commodities Global Summit began on Tuesday in Lausanne, Switzerland. Here are the main talking points from the first day. There was no shortage of talk on Opec, which in November agreed its first reduction in supply in almost a decade. Executives from some of the world’s […]
