A former Indonesian police officer from an elite paramilitary unit who deserted his post and later claimed he had joined a Russian mercenary force fighting in Ukraine has been stripped of his citizenship, according to authorities. Muhammad Rio, a former member of the Aceh Police’s Mobile Brigade Corps (Brimob), a paramilitary arm of Indonesia’s national police, lost his citizenship after joining a...
A former Indonesian police officer from an elite paramilitary unit who deserted his post and later claimed he had joined a Russian mercenary force fighting in Ukraine has been stripped of his citizenship, according to authorities. Muhammad Rio, a former member of the Aceh Police’s Mobile Brigade Corps (Brimob), a paramilitary arm of Indonesia’s national police, lost his citizenship after joining a foreign armed force without authorisation, Law Minister Supratman Andi Agtas said. “Anyone –...
It’s been a day of markets reacting badly to the news. The slump in Japanese bonds deepened Tuesday, sending yields soaring to records as investors gave a thumbs down to Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s election pitch to cut taxes on food. The 40-year rate hit 4%, the highest since its debut in 2007 and a first for any maturity of the nation’s sovereign debt in more than three decades. The yield on...
It’s been a day of markets reacting badly to the news. The slump in Japanese bonds deepened Tuesday, sending yields soaring to records as investors gave a thumbs down to Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s election pitch to cut taxes on food. The 40-year rate hit 4%, the highest since its debut in 2007 and a first for any maturity of the nation’s sovereign debt in more than three decades. The yield on 30-year and 40-year bonds climbed more than 25 basis points. A lackluster auction of the 20-year tenor earlier underscored broader worries over government spending and inflation. Japan’s chief government spokesperson played down the sudden meltdown, saying “long-term yields move on various factors and are determined in the market so I’ll refrain from commenting on every move, but we’re keeping a close eye on markets.” There’s a lot at stake for Takaichi as Japan prepares for a snap lower-house election that could reshape the country’s political balance at a moment of economic strain and regional uncertainty. She’s only been in the top job for about three months, and has set the election date for Feb. 8 to capitalize on soaring public support to shore up her coalition government. Takaichi has already made a mark by bringing forward an increase in defense spending, unveiling the biggest extra budget since pandemic restrictions were eased, and ruffling feathers in China over her comments on Taiwan . That tiff has brought economic consequences : The number of Chinese visitors to Japan fell by almost half in December. What You Need to Know Today Treasuries joined a selloff in global bonds and stocks pulled back as President Donald Trump’s Greenland-related tariff threats reignited trade tensions , testing market confidence after a rally fueled by investments in artificial intelligence. The concern, as trading of the securities resumed after a US holiday, is that the Trump administration’s aggressive stance toward global peers will curb demand for American assets. Trump isn’t ho...
Google DeepMind ’s Chief Operating Officer Lila Ibrahim said the company will use conversations at the World Economic Forum this week to talk responsible development of artificial intelligence. “One question I got last night at dinner is, are we prototyping too much, is there too much piloting going on? And my response was, ‘No, we’re still early in AI development,’” Ibrahim said in a Bloomberg Te...
Google DeepMind ’s Chief Operating Officer Lila Ibrahim said the company will use conversations at the World Economic Forum this week to talk responsible development of artificial intelligence. “One question I got last night at dinner is, are we prototyping too much, is there too much piloting going on? And my response was, ‘No, we’re still early in AI development,’” Ibrahim said in a Bloomberg Television interview with Francine Lacqua in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday. “We’ll never have more time than we do right now to explore and understand, how do we want to shape the technology. How do we set the boundaries?” The annual gathering of world leaders, executives and billionaires includes many of the heads of Silicon Valley’s largest tech companies, who are striving to develop more capable and expansive AI tools than competitors at home and, increasingly, from Asia. Read More: ‘Survival of the Richest’: Trump’s Chaos Sets Off Rush to Davos The Alphabet Inc. research lab is contributing to the development of the Gemini AI assistant, which will tap into vast amounts of data from other Google products including Gmail, Search, YouTube and Photos to create a more personalized product. Apple Inc. will use Gemini to revamp its Siri assistant and power the iPhone maker’s upcoming artificial intelligence features. “We believe AI could be one of the most transformational technologies of our time and we’re seeing how it’s empowering creatives, how it’s improving learning and advancing scientific breakthroughs,” Ibrahim said. “So I worry a lot, are we maximizing the benefits to provide as much as we can for the world?”
Ivan Sautkin films efforts to help residents abandon their frontline homes, as well as a pensioner acting as a spy for the Ukrainian army from the Russian border There is a scene in this Ukrainian documentary in which a woman gruffly shrugs off the offer of evacuation from her property on the frontline. Her son has put in the request to the volunteer humanitarian team ferrying civilians to safety ...
Ivan Sautkin films efforts to help residents abandon their frontline homes, as well as a pensioner acting as a spy for the Ukrainian army from the Russian border There is a scene in this Ukrainian documentary in which a woman gruffly shrugs off the offer of evacuation from her property on the frontline. Her son has put in the request to the volunteer humanitarian team ferrying civilians to safety in the east of the country. But she is caring for her brother, who is paralysed, the woman protests – and what about her German shepherd? As explosions boom terrifyingly close, a volunteer patiently explains that his team will carry her brother to the minivan – and don’t worry, bring the dog. Eventually, the woman agrees to leave, brusquely wiping away a tear. Director Ivan Sautkin is a film-maker by trade and served as a volunteer on the evacuation team. A Poem for Little People is his one-man film; Sautkin is behind the camera, recording everything. These are no interviews, explainers or voiceovers (which admittedly makes it hard to follow at times). The leader of the volunteers is Anton, a cool head under the heaviest fire. The trauma is raw, the situations desperate – in one, volunteers drive an elderly woman out of harm’s way, but as they bump along cracked, potholed roads, they question if they are doing the right thing putting her through the agonising journey. Continue reading...
In this larky autofiction, the ups and downs of creative life are cartoonishly dramatised as the writer becomes an action hero Rob Doyle’s previous novel, Threshold , took the form of a blackly comic travelogue narrated by an Irish writer named Rob. In one episode before Rob becomes an author, we see him as a sexually pent-up teacher abroad, masturbating over an essay he’s marking. That the scene ...
In this larky autofiction, the ups and downs of creative life are cartoonishly dramatised as the writer becomes an action hero Rob Doyle’s previous novel, Threshold , took the form of a blackly comic travelogue narrated by an Irish writer named Rob. In one episode before Rob becomes an author, we see him as a sexually pent-up teacher abroad, masturbating over an essay he’s marking. That the scene is an echo of one in Michel Houellebecq’s Atomised (once named by Doyle as the best book from the past 40 years) hardly lessens our discomfort, and it’s hard not to feel that our unease is precisely the point. “Frankly, a lot of my life has been disastrous,” he once told an interviewer – which might not be quite as self-deprecating as it sounds, given that Doyle has also argued that “great literature” is born of “abjection” not “glory”. The autofictional game-playing continues in his new novel, Cameo, but instead of self-abasing display, we get a perky book-world send-up for the culture war era, cartoonishly dramatising the ups and downs of creative life. It takes the form of a vertiginous hall of mirrors centred on gazillion-selling Dublin novelist Ren Duka, renowned for a long novel cycle drawn on his own life, the summaries of which comprise the bulk of the book we’re reading. Duka’s work isn’t autofiction à la Knausgård: hardly deskbound, still less under the yoke of domesticity, he leads a jet-set life of peril, mixing with drug dealers, terrorists, spies, and eventually serving time for tax evasion before he develops a crack habit, a penchant for threesomes in Paris and – perhaps least likely of all – returns to his long-forsaken Catholicism. Continue reading...
Biscuit International is trying to negotiate an extension of its term loans coming due in just over a year as the Platinum Equity -backed business faces weakened demand and high costs. The company has begun discussions with lenders over how to deal with €695 million ($808 million) of first lien term loan maturities, which fall due in February 2027, according to people familiar with the matter, who...
Biscuit International is trying to negotiate an extension of its term loans coming due in just over a year as the Platinum Equity -backed business faces weakened demand and high costs. The company has begun discussions with lenders over how to deal with €695 million ($808 million) of first lien term loan maturities, which fall due in February 2027, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing a private matter. Spokespeople for Biscuit International and Platinum Equity didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. The first lien loans are one of several debt maturities the company faces. Biscuit, which supplies baked goods to supermarkets to sell under their own brands, also has a revolving credit facility maturing this August and a second lien term loan of over €100 million coming due in 2028, provided by Pemberton Asset Management, some of the people said. Pemberton declined a request to comment. Borrowers will typically look to address debt maturities at least 12 months ahead of time. For Biscuit, a straight refinancing of the term loans could be complicated by the company’s deteriorating credit quality. A €490 million tranche of the debt is currently quoted at around 88.3 cents on the euro, according to price data compiled by Bloomberg. Declining volumes and margin pressure from the high cost of key ingredients such as cocoa and butter led to Moody’s Ratings describing Biscuit’s capital structure as “unsustainable” and highlighting an increased risk of debt restructuring when it cut the company’s rating to Caa2 with a negative outlook in December.
A Giant on the Bridge, performed by a ‘Scottish indie folk supergroup’, draws on dozens of interviews about the confines former prisoners experience on the outside When we talk about crime and punishment, the notion of homecoming is often absent but decarceration and re-entry are critical aspects of the justice system. These subjects are at the heart of A Giant on the Bridge, the singer-songwriter...
A Giant on the Bridge, performed by a ‘Scottish indie folk supergroup’, draws on dozens of interviews about the confines former prisoners experience on the outside When we talk about crime and punishment, the notion of homecoming is often absent but decarceration and re-entry are critical aspects of the justice system. These subjects are at the heart of A Giant on the Bridge, the singer-songwriter Jo Mango and the theatre-maker Liam Hurley’s urgent piece of gig-theatre, which premiered in 2024 and heads out on tour across Scotland next month. It was born from a research project, Distant Voices: Coming Home, that revealed dire statistics for the number of people who come out of prison and then go back in again, says Mango. “Research showed that the process is often less about the individuals and more about societal and structural issues – whether they can get a job when they come out, whether they have any family left who are there to support them.” A Giant on the Bridge emerged as “a kind of way of writing an essay about what we learned”, Mango says, but using songs co-written by people who have lived experience of the prison system. Continue reading...
Is Tilray Brands (NASDAQ: TLRY) finally turning things around? After terrible performances during the past five years -- when the business lost more than 90% of its market value -- the company has had strong momentum in the past six months. Much of that was due to positive regulatory developments in the U.S. cannabis market, but Tilray's most recent quarterly update was also well received by the m...
Is Tilray Brands (NASDAQ: TLRY) finally turning things around? After terrible performances during the past five years -- when the business lost more than 90% of its market value -- the company has had strong momentum in the past six months. Much of that was due to positive regulatory developments in the U.S. cannabis market, but Tilray's most recent quarterly update was also well received by the market, with the company's shares rising on the heels of its earnings release. Can the stock continue moving in the right direction? Image source: Getty Images. Continue reading
Alongside the acquisition, China Tourism Group Duty Free also plans to bring LVMH in as a shareholder. Photo: VCG China Tourism Group Duty Free Corp. Ltd. ( 601888.SH ) plans to acquire LVMH-backed DFS Holdings Ltd.’s Greater China retail operations for up to $395 million in a tie-up aimed at overcoming a sluggish travel retail market. Alongside the acquisition, the Chinese duty free giant also pl...
Alongside the acquisition, China Tourism Group Duty Free also plans to bring LVMH in as a shareholder. Photo: VCG China Tourism Group Duty Free Corp. Ltd. ( 601888.SH ) plans to acquire LVMH-backed DFS Holdings Ltd.’s Greater China retail operations for up to $395 million in a tie-up aimed at overcoming a sluggish travel retail market. Alongside the acquisition, the Chinese duty free giant also plans to bring LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE in as a shareholder. The moves underscore a strategic partnership between China’s dominant duty free operator and the world’s largest luxury conglomerate, as the two seek to leverage their respective strengths to expand their presence in key travel hubs while navigating a prolonged downturn in tourism-related spending.