Good morning. Here’s our daily summary of all the media news you need to know. Want to get this briefing in your inbox every morning? Subscribe here. The rise of “fake news” inspires the press to uncover its many practitioners worldwide, discern its economics and herald the alleged guilt-ridden soul-searching by its greatest enablers, Facebook and Google. But the media dances around another reality with the dexterity […]
Every year, Brazilian venture capital firm Monashees takes entrepreneurs from its portfolio companies on an overseas discovery tour. This year, instead of Silicon Valley, the firm headed to the Yangtze Valley, in a clear sign of a new front opening for Chinese investment in Latin America. China is seeking to expand lending and investment in Brazil and elsewhere on the continent, as it shifts from its traditional […]
On April 7, 14 large blue letters quietly disappeared from the outer walls of an office building in an exclusive neighborhood in northern San Salvador. One by one, the letters came down from the blue and beige stucco walls, leaving behind faint traces of the name of the law firm that had been working there just days before: M-O-S-S-A-C-K-F-O-N-S-E-C-A. Employees of the El Salvador branch of Mossack […]
By Francois Murphy | VIENNA VIENNA Austria will provide a new gauge of the populist wave sweeping Western democracies on Sunday, as the divided country holds a vote that could deliver the first freely-elected far-right head of state in Europe since World War Two. The knife-edge presidential run-off is all the more dramatic for being a re-run of an election held six months ago – before Britain […]
By James Macharia | JOHANNESBURG JOHANNESBURG South African President Jacob Zuma has asked the High Court to set aside a report by an anti-corruption watchdog that called for a judicial inquiry into alleged influence-peddling in his government, the president’s office said on Saturday. While stopping short of conclusive findings, the report by the Public Protector watchdog has increased political pressure on Zuma by calling for an investigation […]
In returning to competition, Woods, who turns 41 this month, is having to make up the blueprint as he goes. No former No. 1 player has been sidelined from competition for more than a year at Woods’s age and returned to resume his winning ways. Photo Tiger Woods, left, an assistant captain, with Patrick Reed during practice for the Ryder Cup. “You have to joke around with […]
newslide Jolie and Pitt could lose adopted sons Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s troubles just got worse. According to radaronline.com, their adopted sons Pax and Maddox could be taken away from them. Pax’s birth mum, Pham Thu Dung, is set to be released from prison soon and when she is, she says she wants her son back. Jolie adopted 13-year-old Pax when he was three years old. […]
Dining in the dark Eating without looking first hit the culinary scene in 1999 when a blind man in Switzerland opened Blindekuh in Zurich, the world’s first restaurant where diners ate their meals in the dark. Usually, eating is an act that involves all the senses. When you lose one of the most important ones – sight – the others are heightened, leading to an extraordinary dining […]
For the past few months, a number of Microsoft watchers have been predicting and hoping (incorrectly) that Microsoft was ready to roll out a competitor to Amazon’s Echo and Google Home. A discovery by Microsoft sleuth The Walking Cat, a k a @h0x0d, of something called “Home Hub” further fueled this rumor. However, as Walking Cat also discovered, Home Hub wasn’t hardware; it was some kind of […]
BEIJING U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s call with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen was a “petty action” by Taiwan, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Saturday, Hong Kong-based Phoenix Television reported. The conversation was the first such contact with Taiwan by a U.S. president-elect or president since President Jimmy Carter switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979, acknowledging Taiwan as part of “one China”. “This is […]
DirecTV Now reestablishes the channel paradigm in a system built for apps Graduations are often accompanied by proclamations. Such was the case for Apple TV when Apple’s former hobby became a full-fledged OS vessel as Tim Cook proclaimed, “the future of TV is apps.” The prediction invited skepticism for many reasons. A year earlier, Google had made its own run at app TV with Android TV, which […]
Mic founder Jake Horowitz reported Friday afternoon that President Obama has been “discussing a post-presidential career in digital media.” The White House swiftly denied it, but that didn’t stop journalists from cracking wise about the possibility: *March, 2017*“Barack Obama, CNN digital contributor,” the chyron reads. — Byron Tau (@ByronTau) December 2, 2016 is obama coming for my job or not https://t.co/PcEGRgFH7g — Sami Main (@samimain) December 2, […]
By Chiekh Sadibou Mane and Thierry Gouegnon | BANJUL BANJUL Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh, who once vowed to rule the tiny West African nation for “a billion years”, said he had accepted his shock election defeat on Friday, 22 years after seizing power in a coup. Voting on Thursday against Jammeh was a rare show of defiance against a leader who has ruled by decree and who […]
Photo Friends and family of the former N.F.L. player Joe McKnight gathered at the site of his fatal shooting in Terrytown, La., on Thursday. Credit Michael Democker/NOLA.com The Times-Picayune, via Associated Press The man held in the fatal shooting of the former N.F.L. standout Joe McKnight in Louisiana admitted to investigators that he had pulled the trigger, the authorities said, but he was allowed to walk free […]
Everyone wants to know when fully self-driving cars will be ready for the road. The companies developing the technology usually give a timeline of several years to decades away. Automotive parts manufacturer Delphi and Mobileye are no different, and during a media roundtable this week in San Francisco, Delphi’s VP of services, Glen DeVos, envisioned a long-term timeframe for the widespread use of the technology. […]
Credit: Yale University On the wall of Aaron Dollar’s office is a poster for R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots), the 1920 Czech play that gave us the word “robot.” The story ends with the nominal robots seizing control of the factory of their origin and then wiping out nearly all of humanity. Dollar, fortunately, has something more cheerful in mind for the future of human-robot relations. He sees […]
By Ahmed Elumami | TRIPOLI TRIPOLI Rival armed factions battled overnight and into Friday in the worst outbreak of fighting in the Libyan capital Tripoli for more than a year. Black smoke rose into the sky and explosions reverberated around the Abu Salim and Hadba districts, and an eyewitness said a major road nearby had been blocked off with shipping containers. Gunfire echoed across several other neighbourhoods. […]
The Cohort is Poynter’s bi-monthly newsletter about women kicking ass in digital media. Over the long Thanksgiving weekend, I caught up on several post-election podcasts. Nearly all of the conversations veered towards self-care. From Another Round’s Heben Nigatu and Bim Adewunmi to Call Your Girlfriend’s Ann Friedman and Aminatou Sow, the women I listened to checked in with each other and offered up their go-tos for feeling good. […]
By Greg Torode and Marius Zaharia | HONG KONG/SINGAPORE HONG KONG/SINGAPORE As the impounding of Singaporean troop carriers in Hong Kong exposes rising tensions between China and Singapore, the Lion City is unlikely to budge on core security interests concerning Beijing – its military relationship with Taiwan, worries over the South China Sea and its hosting of the U.S. military. Singaporean officials, retired military officers and analysts […]
Hello Bill, I’ve followed GATA and LeMetropoleCafe since 1999. Following the work of you, Chris and GATA contributors has been most interesting. I follow a lot of media, including many sites not under the control of the Russian government, such as the Wall Street Journal. For an American who is not an insider GATA is the single best source news and analysis of the economy and financial […]
The Apple AirPods release has been pushed back, but the wireless headphones may finally start shipping “over the next few weeks.” The AirPods have been somewhat of a sour topic for Apple fans, as the headphones have been facing delays for a good while now. Initially supposed to launch in October, Apples’ AirPods are still MIA even today. Back in October, Apple said it needed more time to perfect […]
Russian President Vladmir Putin played a crucial role in helping OPEC rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia set aside differences to forge the cartel’s first deal with non-OPEC Russia in 15 years. Interventions ahead of Wednesday’s OPEC meeting came at key moments from Putin, Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani, OPEC and non-OPEC sources said. Putin’s […]
Richard C. Reid, aka the “Shoe Bomber,” wants a federal judge to declare him bankrupt. The al Qaeda-trained terrorist tried to light a bomb in his shoe on a Paris-to-Miami flight weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks and is serving a life sentence at a “supermax” prison in Colorado. In a handwritten letter to U.S. […] (via WSJ)
Now the hard work begins. The supply agreement agreed by Opec on Wednesday sent oil prices soaring above $50 a barrel but there are many reasons for caution, not least in making sure no one cheats and producers from outside the cartel also contribute. While the deal looks straightforward, it is anything but and the devil is in the detail. The conference documents released on Wednesday evening […]
