News

  Bloomberg The Dubai International Film Festival will this year feature the launch of the Arab Cinema Lab to help finance new projects. Organized independently by MAD Solutions, the Lab looks to function as “a film financing incubator for accelerating the new film projects and new business ideas that will drive the Arab film industry forward over the coming year,” ...

  Abu Dhabi / Emirates Business The Emirates Diplomatic Academy (EDA), the UAE’s international relations and diplomacy academic, training, best-practice and research institution, on Wednesday marked UAE Innovation Week with a designated innovation programme focused on the future of 21st Century diplomacy. Students heard and explored how diplomacy of the future will be shaped by everything from robotics to artificial ...

  Dubai / Emirates Business Frank de Winne, the Belgian astronaut, led a university roadshow in the UAE this week as part of Next Gen Space Initiative and the UAE’s first Belgian Week. The Next Gen initiative, designed to educate and inspire youth on space, is supporting the build-up campaign towards the Global Space Congress, which will be held in ...

  Bloomberg Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond said the UK economy will grow more slowly than previously forecast in 2017 and the government will need to borrow more over the next five years, as he laid out the framework for a post-Brexit Britain. Outlining his first Autumn Statement to Parliament on Wednesday, five months to the day after Britain ...

  Bloomberg Filings for unemployment benefits in the U.S. rebounded last week from a four-decade low while remaining consistent with a firm labor market. Jobless claims rose by 18,000 to 251,000 in the period ended Nov. 19, a Labor Department report showed Wednesday. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey called for 250,000 applications. In the previous week that included ...

  Brussels / AFP European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker unveiled plans on Wednesday to tighten the code of conduct for former officials after a row over his predecessor Jose Manuel Barroso’s role with Goldman Sachs. The “cooling-off” period during which they must inform Brussels if they take a new job would be extended from 18 months to three years for ...

  Bloomberg Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Germans against turning to economic isolationism, saying she’s “not happy” about the possible collapse of the Trans-Pacific Partnership after US President-elect Donald Trump said he’ll withdraw from the trade accord. Fresh from announcing she’ll seek a fourth term in next year’s German election, Merkel used a speech to parliament in Berlin to acknowledge voters’ ...

  Bloomberg Euro-area economic growth accelerated to its fastest pace this year as growing order books prompted companies to add more workers and raise prices. A Purchasing Managers’ Index for manufacturing and services rose to 54.1 in November from 53.3 a month earlier, IHS Markit said on Wednesday. That’s the strongest level in 11 months and above the 50 mark ...

  AFP The uncertainty caused by Brexit and Donald Trump’s election will help spur talks on a long-stalled free trade accord between the EU and South American trade block Mercosur, Brazil’s foreign minister said Wednesday. “I think the possibilities of the Mercosur negotiations have a direct relationship with international insecurity,” Jose Serra told a news conference in Madrid when asked ...

  KHOBAR / Reuters Saudi Arabia plans to more than triple the contribution of its mining industry to national wealth as measured by GDP by 2030, the energy minister said. The kingdom is finalising a mining strategy aimed at raising annual mining revenues from 64 billion riyals ($17.07 billion) to 240 billion riyals by 2030, Khalid Al Falih told reporters ...