Corporate speeches usually avoid talk of a “difficult and dark” past. But this month Mark Cutifani, head of Anglo American, defended the South African mining industry’s record on opening up ownership to the country’s black majority. With the government planning to shore up black participation in mining, the next few months are the most critical in the sector’s 150-year history, Mr Cutifani said. Many “still don’t understand” […]
In the first tangible step toward delivering on Trump’s campaign promise to halt unauthorized immigration from Mexico, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Friday released plans for picking vendors for President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall, issuing a preliminary request for proposals saying it plans to release a formal solicitation around March 6 “for the design and build of several prototype wall structures in the vicinity […]
Akamai has published its Q4 2016 State of the Internet/Security report As always, an interesting read and an opportunity to look at trends in attacks. Not all trends are up and to the right. As the report states, Q4 2016 was “the third consecutive quarter where we noticed a decrease in the number of attack triggers”. Still, “the overall 2016 attack count was up 4% as compared […]
February 25, 2017 by: Arash Massoudi and Javier Espinoza Bain Capital has made a €3.6bn offer to buy Stada, as the bidding war between private equity firms for the German maker of generic versions of drugs such as Viagra nears its climax. The offer from the US-based buyout group values shares in Stada at €58 a share and comes two days after its rival Advent International also […]
Saudi Arabia’s economy is forecast to continue slowing this year, dragged down by negative growth in the oil sector, according to Jadwa Investment. Its latest report said growth in the oil sector will turn negative due to the kingdom’s compliance with OPEC production cuts, while non-oil sector growth should rebound but “remain subdued” during 2017. Jadwa forecast that growth in the non-oil private sector will accelerate from […]
25 February 2017 MARC has affirmed its AAA(bg) rating on Boustead Holdings Berhad’s (Boustead) RM1.0 billion Bank-Guaranteed Medium-Term Notes (BG MTN) programme with a stable outlook. The rating reflects the credit strength of the syndicated bank guarantee facility provided by OCBC Bank (Malaysia) Berhad (OCBC Malaysia), Public Bank Berhad (Public Bank), Malayan Banking Berhad (Maybank) and The Bank of East Asia (BEA) Labuan Branch, all of which carry financial institution ratings […]
Image credit: Arqiva Samsung Electronics says it will start the UK’s first 5G broadband network in central London, following earlier trials South Korea, China and Japan. In London, it will work with Arqiva, which is best known for DAB radio broadcasting. Arqiva has a licence to use the 28GHz spectrum across the UK, and will host a number of Samsung’s 5G base stations. Arqiva’s CEO, Simon Beresford-Wylie, […]
Photo Credit Rukmini Callimachi/The New York Times I’m in northern Iraq and spent the day traveling to the front lines of western Mosul, where Iraqi government forces are battling the Islamic State for complete control of this city. Along the way, my colleagues and I met a villager who had just escaped. The villager, Lahib Muhammed Ali, lived on a dairy farm. He said that because the […]
Suppliers to Tesla and other electric carmakers are scrambling to secure shipments of the key battery material cobalt after a group of hedge funds amassed a large stockpile of the scarce metal. In a bold wager on higher prices, half a dozen funds, including Swiss-based Pala Investments and China’s Shanghai Chaos, have purchased and stored an estimated 6,000 tonnes of cobalt, worth as much as $280m, according […]
The five largest banks in the UAE are forecast to see profitability remaining “solid” over the next 12-18 months, according to ratings agency Moody’s. In the fourth quarter of 2016, Emirates NBD, National Bank of Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, First Gulf Bank and Dubai Islamic Bank posted solid profitability, said Moody’s Investors Service in a report. “We expect the five large United Arab Emirates banks’ […]
The latest update for Final Fantasy XV, Patch 1.05, introduced several additions such as the Booster Pack and DLC for Season Pass holders, which includes the single-handed sword Ragnarok for more powerful Warp Strikes by Noctis, and compatibility for the PlayStation 4 Pro. It has been previously revealed that there are many more things coming for the latest installment in the long-running RPG franchise, and recent reports have […]
LG Gram laptop LG has largely scaled back its global PC ambitions — its U.S. website shows a single Chromebase desktop for sale — except for its Gram family of ultra-light laptops. It rolled them out late in 2015 — 13-inch and 14-inch notebooks that each weighed a little over 2 pounds, then added a 15-inch version a couple of months later. The lineup has thrived enough […]
By Lewis Krauskopf | NEW YORK NEW YORK U.S. President Donald Trump’s planned economic agenda has fanned the flames for Wall Street’s record-setting run, but some investors worry that his first major address to Congress next week risks dousing it if his plans look slow to execute or are overly vague. The benchmark S&P 500 .SPX has surged 10 percent since Trump’s Nov. 8 election, with optimism […]
Eat the World DXB is in full swing this weekend, with 25 international street-food traders from the United Kingdom, the United States and Singapore serving up street food with vendors from the UAE (each street food trader is cleverly marked by its country’s flag). Held in Burj Park with a close-up view of the Burj Khalifa, the festival has plenty of food on offer, a host of […]
As with the worlds of haute couture and prêt-à-porter in fashion, France’s small-cap companies depend vitally on the success of the main Paris bourse. Yet as the country braces itself for the presidential election, and as US and other international investors start reducing their French holdings, a flight from the small-caps to the larger, more liquid French companies might be expected. But the opposite has actually been […]
By Jonathan Landay | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON While President Donald Trump has suggested that the United States must expand its nuclear arsenal, many experts say U.S. nuclear forces are unrivalled and will remain so as they undergo a modernization programme that could cost more than $1 trillion. In an interview with Reuters on Thursday, Trump said the United States has “fallen behind on nuclear weapon capacity.” He pledged […]
Every year, Inrix releases its Global Traffic Scorecard, which ranks congestion on roads in 1,064 cities in 38 countries. And every year the report tells urban commuters what they already know—traffic sucks and is getting worse. But at least Inrix’s Global Traffic Scorecard uses data—500TB from 300 million sources covering over 5 million miles of road—to let us know exactly how much it sucks. And […]
European equity funds attracted their largest weekly inflows in more than a year as institutional investors bet on a recovery taking hold across the continent. Investors added $1.1bn to funds investing in European stocks in the seven days to February 22, a haul that nearly matched the inflows of the preceding four weeks combined, according to data from EPFR. This was despite outflows from dedicated French stock […]
In this photo taken Thursday, Feb. 2, 2017, Yvonne Felix wears eSight electronic glasses and looks around Union Square during a visit to San Francisco. The glasses enable the legally blind to see. Felix was diagnosed with Stargardt’s disease after being hit by a car at the age of seven. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg) Jeff Regan was born with underdeveloped optic nerves and had spent most of his […]
By Mica Rosenberg | NEW YORK NEW YORK A U.S. Department of Homeland Security plan to add more than 5,000 border enforcement agents will present logistical challenges and might be unnecessary, according to former government officials familiar with earlier pushes to accelerate border hiring. Three former top officials at U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) told Reuters in interviews that ramping up hiring at the agency, as […]
The Dow was on track to break its 10-day record-setting streak on Friday, as investors turned cautious after recent comments from Trump administration suggested that pro-growth policies may take longer to be implemented. Wall Street is trading at record levels since the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president, spurred by his promises of tax reforms, reduced regulations and increased infrastructure spending. However, with Trump giving scant […]
The onset of the Trump era forced economists to confront their doubts about their usefulness to the public. They shared this ordeal with political forecasters, Democrats, logicians and journalists. Maybe we all deserved the anguish. Those economists who remain in a funk should nonetheless snap themselves out of it. One reason is that the sappy self-loathing economist is now embarrassingly cliché. Take it from a sappy self-loathing […]
TOKYO Asian shares took a breather on Friday, slipping from 1-1/2-year highs as material shares were hit by sudden falls in copper and other commodity prices while investors assessed Washington’s stance on tax and currency policies. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was down 0.5 percent, giving back part of this week’s gains, though it is likely to log its fifth straight weekly advance. […]
Since its launch in 2010, Pinterest has established itself as one of the most popular image and idea curation sites, with an incredible 100 million monthly active users. There are plenty of other social-media sites, but for design lovers, Pinterest is still the ultimate source of inspiration, with everything from room makeovers to colour palettes, creative projects and insider tips. Here’s a rundown of some of our […]
