Sign up to receive Authers’ Note daily by email here Despite appearances to the contrary, the Trump trade may be moving into reverse as the president’s maiden State of the Union address approaches. The overall level of the stock market is, of course, at fresh records. But the pattern within it is shifting again. The end of the week saw sharp falls for almost all equity markets […]
Telescopes, the workhorse instruments of astronomy, are limited by the size of the mirror or lens they use. Using ‘neural nets’, a form of artificial intelligence, a group of Swiss researchers now have a way to push past that limit, offering scientists the prospect of the sharpest ever images in optical astronomy. (via WSJ)
Submitted by Jeremiah Johnson (nom de plume of retired Green Beret of the United States Army Special Forces) via SHTFPlan.com, As of this writing a tremendous number of things are happening in North Korea and Russia. Although these are not events that seem momentous, they are quite profound when taken into consideration with the grand scheme: the worldwide plot to form a state of global governance. These […]
BEIJING A youth named by China as the second-highest figure in Tibetan Buddhism, but reviled as a fake by many Tibetans, has pledged to uphold the “glorious tradition” of patriotism that holders of his position have followed, state news agency Xinhua said. Although officially atheist, China selected Gyaltsen Norbu as the 11th Panchen Lama in 1995 in a drive to win the hearts and minds of Tibetans. […]
GUATEMALA CITY The United States will request the extradition of former Guatemalan Vice President Roxana Baldetti and a former cabinet minister on drug trafficking charges, the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala said on Friday. Baldetti has been imprisoned in Guatemala since 2015 on charges of leading a network that defrauded the government of the Central American country along with former president Otto Pérez Molina, who has also been […]
Credit: shatterered.io Today, researchers at the Dutch research institute CWI and Google jointly announce that they have broken the SHA-1 internet security standard in practice. This industry standard is used for digital signatures and file integrity verification, which secure credit card transactions, electronic documents, GIT open-source software repositories and software distribution. CWI cryptanalyst Marc Stevens says: “Many applications still use SHA-1, although it was officially deprecated by […]
Photo Christian families who had left El Arish, in northern Sinai, arriving at a church in Ismailia, Egypt. Credit Ahmed Aboulenein/Reuters CAIRO — Dozens of Egyptian Christian families fled their homes in the northern Sinai Peninsula on Friday, driven by a targeted campaign of Islamist violence that has killed at least seven people in recent weeks. People flooded into a church compound in the city of Ismailia, […]
By Arshad Mohammed | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The longest-serving U.S. diplomat warned against isolationism, protectionism and Russian aggression on Friday in a retirement speech implicitly criticizing some of U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies even as he urged officials to serve the White House loyally. Ambassador Dan Fried argued that since becoming a world power over a century ago, the United States had largely pursued an open, rules-based world, […]
Uber is under attack once again today as the Twittersphere quickly concluded it was behind a smear campaign against a former engineer for the company, Susan Fowler Rigetti, who dropped a scathing blog post earlier this week detailing sexual harassment claims while working at Uber over the course of a year. Rigetti tweeted today people were being contacted for “personal and intimate info” about her, causing many […]
By John Walcott and Matt Spetalnick | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON A proposal the Trump administration is considering to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organisation has stalled over warnings from defence and intelligence officials that the move could backfire, according to officials familiar with the matter. “If you do that, there is no way to escalate, and you would foreclose any possibility of talking to the […]
Dubai’s Department of Economic Development (DED) received 27,027 consumer complaints in 2016, an increase of 23 percent compared to the previous year. On average, the DED received 2,252 complaints monthly as continued awareness campaigns led to better understanding of consumer rights and responsibilities across the emirate, state news agency WAM reported. The complaints received in 2016 involved non-compliance with warranty terms (39 percent of complaints), refunds (17 […]
About a month ago, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz decided to ‘take a stand’ in defiance of Trump’s immigration executive order and penned a message to the world vowing, among other things, to hire 10,000 refugees over the next 5 years and “build bridges, not walls, with Mexico”. Here are some excerpts from the politically charged message drafted by Schultz with “deep concern and a heavy heart”: I […]
sharjah A four day festival of marine life has opened at the Sharjah Aquarium to help educate and inform about the importance of preserving marine ecosystems around the UAE. Families have been enjoying free sea themed entertainment shows including life-size models of mermaids, octopus, sharks and seahorses in a setting to reinforce the virtual marine environment. The aquarium has been complemented by a fun beach, theatre, hand […]
Your daily guide to community and cultural activities across the Emirates for February 25, 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. newslide Abu Dhabi Concert Emirati pianist Eman Al Hashimi (pictured), French pianists Angelina Natal and Natalia Stetsenko, and French violinist Clara Saïtkoulov will […]
Two years after Donald Trump was booed at an influential conservative event, the US president returned to the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday for a victory lap. But his rambling address, at an event that was more campaign rally than detailed presentation of policy, struck a jarring note at the end of a week that saw a semblance of orthodoxy from the new administration. While his […]
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 […]
CAPE TOWN, South Africa, February 24, 2017 In keeping with Samsung’s (www.Samsung.com) goal to enrich and transform lives through digital technology, the electronics giant today reiterated its commitment to advancing access to technology in education across Africa. Speaking at the Samsung Africa Forum 2017, Ms. Sthembile Shabangu, head of Public Relations and Corporate Citizenship at Samsung Electronics, Africa Office notes: “In today’s digital era, any community, especially […]
ROME Doctors and nurses are among 94 hospital workers from Naples who have been placed under investigation on suspicion of repeatedly skipping work, police said on Friday. One supervisor at the Loreto Mare hospital was instead found working as a chef in a hotel, while an on-duty doctor was spotted playing tennis and going shopping. Two health workers were caught clocking in 20 colleagues each day to […]
PARIS French prosecutors on Friday appointed a magistrate to investigate allegations concerning presidential candidate Francois Fillon and his wife, over charges that his wife got large sums of money for work she may not have done. The prosecutor’s decision to open up a new stage in the case marks a blow for Fillon, whose status as favourite to win the presidency has faded since a newspaper broke […]
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 […]
Depression is not as uncommon as thought and affects more than 4 percent of the global population. The mental condition, if not treated in time may lead to physical and mental disabilities. The World Health Organization (WHO) released some figures pertaining to depression on Thursday, Feb. 23. The figures suggest that depression is now the leading cause of physical and mental disabilities worldwide. “You can see one […]
The revelation that Kim Jong Nam was killed with the deadly nerve agent, VX, transforms a brutal piece of internecine political bloodletting into something with far broader implications. Although it denies responsibility, few doubt the North Korean regime is responsible — and is flashing signals to its enemies. “It is more than just killing someone,” said Patricia Lewis, research director at policy institute Chatham House. “This was […]
Ford has spent the last few years transforming itself from a car company into a technology and transportation company. Ford still wants to sell cars, but increasingly the company focuses on how those vehicles interact with city infrastructure, other vehicles, and the passengers themselves. One of the executives leading that imitative is Don Butler, Director of Connected Vehicles and Services at Ford. I spoke with […]
By Emily Stephenson and Steve Holland | NATIONAL HARBOR, Md./WASHINGTON NATIONAL HARBOR, Md./WASHINGTON President Donald Trump said he would make a massive budget request for one of the “greatest military buildups in American history” on Friday in a feisty, campaign-style speech extolling robust nationalism to eager conservative activists. Trump used remarks to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), an organization that gave him one of his first […]
