Hong Kong’s struggling office landlords are ramping up efforts to convert their assets into co-working spaces and student accommodation in a bid to adapt to intense competition and the flight to quality, according to analysts. With some 3.5 million sq ft of new premium office space expected to be completed this year and next, on top of the 4.5 million sq ft added in 2024 and 2025, tenants are incr...
Hong Kong’s struggling office landlords are ramping up efforts to convert their assets into co-working spaces and student accommodation in a bid to adapt to intense competition and the flight to quality, according to analysts. With some 3.5 million sq ft of new premium office space expected to be completed this year and next, on top of the 4.5 million sq ft added in 2024 and 2025, tenants are increasingly choosing to relocate to new and modern offices, leading to diverging fortunes for big...
US Again Demands Iraq End Maliki Nomination, Or Else Authored by Jason Ditz via AntiWar.com, Iraq's Coordination Framework is still putting forward Nouri al-Maliki as its candidate for prime minister, despite President Trump loudly and repeatedly demand he be withdrawn. The US had reportedly set a deadline of Friday, February 27, to end the candidacy or face unspecified repercussions . What happen...
US Again Demands Iraq End Maliki Nomination, Or Else Authored by Jason Ditz via AntiWar.com, Iraq's Coordination Framework is still putting forward Nouri al-Maliki as its candidate for prime minister, despite President Trump loudly and repeatedly demand he be withdrawn. The US had reportedly set a deadline of Friday, February 27, to end the candidacy or face unspecified repercussions . What happens next, after the US has attacked Tehran, is anyone's guess. If that sounds familiar, it’s because the US had similarly set a " final deadline " for Maliki’s withdrawal last weekend, though that deadline passed with little visible consequence and just more US complaining about Maliki. Prime Minister of Iraq, Nuri al-Maliki. Image: USAF/Public Domain With just 24 hours left, the latest deadline doesn’t seem like it’s going to change anything either, with the Framework saying they don’t intend to allow the US to decide who gets to be Iraq’s prime minister. Furthermore, the indication is that they don’t even intend to hold another meeting on the premiership until next week , well after this deadline will have already passed. There does not appear to be any other serious candidate being put forward by any part of the Framework, which is the largest bloc in Iraq’s deeply divided parliament. Maliki served as Prime Minister of Iraq from 2006 through 2014. President Trump has insisted he has “ insane policies and ideologies ” and cannot be allowed to return to office, though again there are no other serious candidates within the Framework who have come forward to replace him with. Maliki has sought to return to office for years and though his State of Law Party only won about 6% of the seats in last year’s election, he has the support of Kurdish factions , and the largest party within the Framework, that of current Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani, has appeared to accept Maliki’s candidacy after Sudani said he doesn’t intend to serve another term. It’s a recurring theme in Iraq th...
The US joined an Israeli assault after intel suggested Iran’s top clerics and commanders could be hit at once Donald Trump launched attacks against Iran on Saturday as part of a joint operation with Israel after they developed intelligence that they could simultaneously target the country’s leaders and mullahs, according to two people familiar with deliberations. The Israelis had been tracking the...
The US joined an Israeli assault after intel suggested Iran’s top clerics and commanders could be hit at once Donald Trump launched attacks against Iran on Saturday as part of a joint operation with Israel after they developed intelligence that they could simultaneously target the country’s leaders and mullahs, according to two people familiar with deliberations. The Israelis had been tracking the movements of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, and determined there was a window of opportunity to launch attacks as they convened, the people said. Continue reading...
Bystander describes ‘loud crashing sound from the rocks’ as light aircraft goes into sea at Lee-on-the-Solent A pilot survived after a light aircraft crashed on to a beach in Hampshire on Saturday. The pilot had exited the aircraft before firefighters arrived and was subsequently assessed by the ambulance service, Hampshire and Isle of Wight fire and rescue service said. Continue reading...
Bystander describes ‘loud crashing sound from the rocks’ as light aircraft goes into sea at Lee-on-the-Solent A pilot survived after a light aircraft crashed on to a beach in Hampshire on Saturday. The pilot had exited the aircraft before firefighters arrived and was subsequently assessed by the ambulance service, Hampshire and Isle of Wight fire and rescue service said. Continue reading...
Child protection has been strengthened after a new law mandating welfare, education and medical professionals to report suspected abuse came into effect in Hong Kong last month. Welcome as it is, the additional safeguard only helps identify cases for early intervention. For child abuse cases to be kept to a minimum, the problem needs to be tackled at the root. One way is to better understand why s...
Child protection has been strengthened after a new law mandating welfare, education and medical professionals to report suspected abuse came into effect in Hong Kong last month. Welcome as it is, the additional safeguard only helps identify cases for early intervention. For child abuse cases to be kept to a minimum, the problem needs to be tackled at the root. One way is to better understand why some parents still resort to force and other forms of abuse in child-rearing. The issue was put into...
HJBC Shares of International Business Machines ( IBM ) were hammered this week after Anthropic ( ANTHRO ) announced its Claude Code tool could be used to efficiently modernize systems running on COBOL, a legacy programming language widely used on IBM mainframes. We asked Seeking Alpha analysts Julia Ostian , The Techie , and Joseph Parrish what they thought lay ahead for the tech titan. Julia Osti...
HJBC Shares of International Business Machines ( IBM ) were hammered this week after Anthropic ( ANTHRO ) announced its Claude Code tool could be used to efficiently modernize systems running on COBOL, a legacy programming language widely used on IBM mainframes. We asked Seeking Alpha analysts Julia Ostian , The Techie , and Joseph Parrish what they thought lay ahead for the tech titan. Julia Ostian : What’s next for IBM ( IBM ) depends on hardware and a newly vulnerable consulting business. While Anthropic’s new AI tool threatens to steal a chunk of IBM’s $21.1B consulting revenue by automating the mapping of old COBOL code, it doesn’t look like this translated code will be able to run outside the mainframe or that someone will try to risk it and transition to the cloud. With features like internal redundancy and shared-everything memory, the z17 mainframe remains the only machine banks trust for zero-downtime transactions. Financially, IBM is a “cash cow” with a record $14.7B in free cash flow, but with $61.3B in debt and a modest 5% growth forecast, the jury is still out on whether its $12.5B GenAI business can progress fast enough to keep Anthropic away. The Techie : The market's visceral reaction to IBM ( IBM ) this week is a classic case of shooting first and asking questions later, triggered by the realization that AI is accelerating faster than even the most aggressive forecasts. I don’t think the sudden panic over Anthropic’s ( ANTHRO ) ability to automate COBOL modernization is an overnight kill switch for a company deeply embedded in global financial infrastructure. Instead, it serves as a wake-up call that the traditional high-margin consulting model is being permanently repriced. IBM isn't necessarily obsolete, but it is now in a high-stakes race to prove it can be the architect of this new automated world rather than its first major casualty. The most important trend for the rest of 2026 is the democratization of software. As tools like Anthropic’s Cla...
War launched by US and Israel on Iran has quickly escalated prompting anxiety and concern in whole region Full report US-Israeli attack on Iran – live updates Iran struck the world-famous Fairmont hotel in Dubai, setting the hotel alight, as the war launched by the US and Israel on Iran quickly spread to the rest of the Middle East on Saturday. Residents watched in shock as an Iranian missile hit ...
War launched by US and Israel on Iran has quickly escalated prompting anxiety and concern in whole region Full report US-Israeli attack on Iran – live updates Iran struck the world-famous Fairmont hotel in Dubai, setting the hotel alight, as the war launched by the US and Israel on Iran quickly spread to the rest of the Middle East on Saturday. Residents watched in shock as an Iranian missile hit the five-star hotel in Dubai’s luxurious Palm Jumeirah area. Social media videos showed fires breaking out near the entrance of the hotel, which led to four people being injured. Continue reading...
The 26-year-old dominates in Manchester, landing the night’s biggest prizes as Rosé, Wolf Alice and Mark Ronson also take top honours Olivia Dean was the big winner at the 2026 Brit awards, taking home awards for artist of the year, pop act, song of the year for her Sam Fender duet Rein Me In, and album of the year for The Art of Loving. In less than a year, Dean has leaped to the forefront of Bri...
The 26-year-old dominates in Manchester, landing the night’s biggest prizes as Rosé, Wolf Alice and Mark Ronson also take top honours Olivia Dean was the big winner at the 2026 Brit awards, taking home awards for artist of the year, pop act, song of the year for her Sam Fender duet Rein Me In, and album of the year for The Art of Loving. In less than a year, Dean has leaped to the forefront of British pop thanks to The Art of Loving, her second album. With songs that get to the heart of the joys and frustrations of casual modern dating, she is enormously relatable, while her sophisticated and cosmopolitan songcraft, deftly finessing styles such as bossa nova, trip-hop, neo-soul and jazz together, has given her an unusually broad and cross-generational appeal. Continue reading...
OpenAI said on Saturday that the agreement it struck a day ago with the Pentagon to deploy technology on the U.S. defense department's classified network includes additional safeguards to protect its use cases. U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday directed the government to stop working with Anthropic, and the Pentagon said it would declare the startup a supply-chain risk, dealing a major blow...
OpenAI said on Saturday that the agreement it struck a day ago with the Pentagon to deploy technology on the U.S. defense department's classified network includes additional safeguards to protect its use cases. U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday directed the government to stop working with Anthropic, and the Pentagon said it would declare the startup a supply-chain risk, dealing a major blow to the artificial intelligence lab after a showdown about technology guardrails. Anthropic said it would challenge any risk designation in court.