Dec 23, 2016 10:30 am IST Sri Lanka is getting ready to join dozens of other countries that have broken festive records by building the world’s tallest artificial Christmas tree. A Wall Street Journal article explains why the tree nearly didn’t get made. Below are a few other holiday records that remain unbroken, according to the Guinness World Records. Tallest artificial tree Sri Lanka looks set to […]
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. It could be a dinner akin to the disastrous ones in “Meet the Parents,” “Talladega Nights” and “Wedding Crashers.” Or maybe “American Beauty,” where newly unemployed Kevin Spacey turns to his wife (Annette Bening) and daughter (Thora Birch) and says […]
Law Blog rounds up the morning’s legal news: VW buy-back: Volkswagen agreed to pay around $1 billion to repurchase or fix an additional batch of diesel-powered vehicles tainted with emissions-cheating software, resolving what had become a sticking point more than a year into Volkswagen’s diesel-emissions crisis. [WSJ] Unrevealing: A newly unsealed search-warrant application in the Clinton probe confirms the FBI found thousands of emails potentially linked to […]
By David Stanway | SHANGHAI SHANGHAI China has publicly named more than 20 enterprises it says broke environmental rules during this week’s outbreak of hazardous smog in the country’s north, its latest attempt to bring lawbreaking firms to account by shaming them. The Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) accused steel and paper mills, cement plants, power generators and chemical producers of a range of offences, including ignoring […]
Although students at Abu Dhabi’s Future Rehabilitation Centre achieve varying degrees of independence after they graduate, the ideal is to land a job. One such graduate to have achieved this is Eid Al Shamsi, a 21-year-old Emirati who is now working at the Ministry of Interior’s human rights department. When he was a boy, Mr Al Shamsi had initially been enrolled in a private school, where he […]
For Lindsay Lohan, adopting new roles and changing her image seems to have become as much a part of her personal life as it was in her acting career. Following well-documented struggles with addiction, turbulent relationships and a somewhat chequered history as an actress, the 30-year-old is embracing her latest real-life role. She has become a self-proclaimed humanitarian campaigner for Syria and Turkey, in addition to reportedly […]
More than four decades after a sweeping British military withdrawal from bases “east of Suez”, the UK is scaling up its defence engagement in the Gulf and Asia in what analysts regard as a recognition of the region’s growing global importance. Britain is reopening a naval support facility in Bahrain, creating a permanent army presence in Oman and establishing new defence staff centres in Dubai and Singapore. […]
Photo An Airbus A321 featuring the Iranian flag at an Airbus plant in Hamburg, Germany, this week. The acquisition of modern planes is an important achievement for President Hassan Rouhani of Iran. Credit Fabian Bimmer/Reuters The European aircraft manufacturer Airbus completed a deal on Thursday to sell 100 jetliners to Iran, a move described by both sides as a major step toward revitalizing Iran’s aged commercial fleet […]
(Image: file photo) Earlier this year, we were sent a series of large, encrypted files purportedly belonging to a US police department as a result of a leak at a law firm, which was insecurely synchronizing its backup systems across the internet without a password. Among the files was a series of phone dumps created by the police department with specialist equipment, which was created by Cellebrite, […]
BEIJING Chinese state media on Friday expressed alarm and warned of a “showdown with the U.S.” after President-elect Donald Trump named Peter Navarro, an economist who has urged a hard line against China, to head a new White House National Trade Council. Navarro is an academic and one-time investment adviser who has authored books such as “Death by China: How America Lost its Manufacturing Base”. The book […]
The Beyond the Net Funding Programme is proud to announce the results of our November 2016 grant application cycle. This cycle, we received 39 amazing applications from around the world. The project ideas were varied, original, and focused on helping local communities. It was hard, but the Selection Committee managed to pick six projects for funding. These projects were selected for their uniqueness, structure and the benefits […]
Constellation Research hopes you all have a great holiday season this year with friends and family. In the spirit of recognizing memorable achievements in the tech industry, we also want to use this occasion to announce the winners of Constellation’s first annual Enterprise Awards. The winners were selected through a combination of internal voting and heated debate among Constellation’s analyst team. Each category also includes a number […]
DUBAI // Dubai has topped the rankings as the most expensive city to see in the new year for the second year in a row. According to the annual survey of seven of the most popular cities by the currency exchange firm Travelex, celebrating New Year’s Eve in the city costs Dh2,240 per person on average. New York ranked second at Dh1,850, followed by London at Dh1,435, […]
Your daily guide to community and cultural activities across the Emirates for December 23, 2016, including performances, festivals, art exhibitions, film screenings, health and fitness events, talks, classes, workshops and family fun. newslide Abu Dhabi Festive fun Visit Al Maryah Island for the Winter Wonderland, featuring cosy winter cottages hosting activities including bauble-decorating, cracker-making and gingerbread-house-decorating. A skating rink and snow park offer a wintry feel, while […]
Donald Trump turned up the heat under Lockheed Martin about the cost of its F-35 fighter jet, tweeting on Thursday that he had asked rival defence contractor Boeing to price its F-18 Super Hornet as an alternative. “Based on the tremendous cost and cost overruns of the Lockheed Martin F-35, I have asked Boeing to price-out a comparable F-18 Super Hornet!” Mr Trump tweeted on Thursday evening. […]
A Hoaxy search reveals articles that claim cannabis cures cancer. The graph on the left shows the rise in these claims over the past five months. The graph on the right shows the claim’s spread on social media. Credit: Indiana University The Observatory on Social Media at Indiana University has launched a powerful new tool in the fight against fake news. The tool, called Hoaxy, visualizes how […]
Sales of a new Dubai real estate project, which will feature an amphitheatre and a gourmet market, will be launched in early 2017, it has been announced. T.ZED Architects have been appointed as the design leads for Canvas, KOA’s first mixed-use development which is scheduled to be completed by the end of next year. Canvas will include 70 apartments and will also feature a co-working space, a […]
As journalists grapple with the rise of fake news, it’s worth examining what happens when policymakers embrace misinformation instead of evidence when it comes to climate change. In September, YourNewsWire breathlessly told its readers that thousands of scientists had declared climate change “a hoax.” This was big news — at least on Facebook — where the YourNewsWire post was shared more than 550,000 times, making it the […]
By Amy Tennery | NEW YORK NEW YORK A JetBlue airline passenger, who media outlets and a witness described as making angry remarks at the sight of Ivanka Trump on his flight, was removed from the plane on Thursday by the airline. JetBlue Airways Corp (JBLU.O) confirmed in a statement that a passenger had been removed from a flight set to depart from New York’s John F. […]
Now that you have a new internet media streaming device, you’ll need something to watch on it. I cut the cord in 2009 and here are the best services I’ve found since then. Cord-cutting and video-streaming is replacing traditional cable and satellite TV. Jonathan Alcorn/Reuters/Corbis Before launching into it, though, you should know things are changing. Cord cutting is no longer remarkable, it’s normal. The media companies […]
It was growing up in Melbourne, Australia as a teenager that Stuart Cameron first got a taste for food from the Mediterranean and Middle East. “I used to go to this local Turkish store … there’d be all these amazing dips and Turkish breads and stuff,” says Cameron, the executive chef for Canada’s Icon Legacy Group. “It was always around me as a kid.” Cameron completed a […]
The seizure of all of Aleppo by Mr. Assad and his allies signals a turning point in the nearly six-year conflict. Continue reading the main story Mr. Assad’s army relied heavily on foreign military support from Russia, Iran and Shiite militias like Lebanon’s Hezbollah to surround the rebel-held area. Months of shelling and airstrikes that killed hundreds of people and reduced entire neighborhoods to rubble finally routed […]
Submitted by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com, In the late 1400s, the city-states of Italy were among most dominant powers in the world. Most of the city-states had abandoned the feudal system that persisted across Europe. So Italy was one of the only places on the continent where anyone, including foreigners, could work hard, take risks, and become wealthy. People could start businesses and own private property– revolutionary […]
If you pay attention to the narrative following every Apple product announcement, it’s loaded with disappointment and declarations that Apple has lost the innovative touch to create a “magical” experience consumers have come to expect from the company. Some of the complaints are warranted, such as those about the TouchBar on the new MacBook Pro. It’s useful, sure, but it’s nowhere near as profound as the Apple […]
