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Visitors exit the Seattle NFT Museum during its opening weekend in Seattle, Washington. Using the blockchain technology behind cryptocurrencies, Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) transform anything from illustrations to memes into virtual collectors’ items that cannot be duplicated. — AFP photos
Can Hermes, Nike stop ‘unauthorized’ NFTs?
As digital objects in the form of NFTs have exploded in popularity and value over the past year, so too have the legal headaches and complications. Nike became the latest company to file a lawsuit over the issue on Thursday - suing shopping platform StockX for creating and marketing NFTs with its logo and branding. It follows a lawsuit last month by French luxury brand Hermes against artist Mason Rothschild, who has auctioned 100...
BATABANO, Cuba: A woman pushes a cart with milk for neighbors amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Batabano, Mayabeque province, Cuba. —AFP
Cuba runs out of milk, breaking Castro’s promise
HAVANA: In the early days of communism in Cuba, Fidel Castro had pledged that every child under seven would have a liter of subsidized milk every day. For some time, they did-but today, many go without. To circumvent the US embargo against Cuba and lagging domestic production, milk has to come from the other side of the world in an obstacle race that deprives many on the island of the staple. Regla Caridad Zayas, a 59-year-old diabetic, said the...
KYIV, Ukraine: Ukrainian capital is currently living a strange double life. Work is going on as normal, people are carrying on with everyday tasks, and nothing seems out of the ordinary.
Russian invasion or not, Ukraine’s economy is already paying price
KYIV, Ukraine: In his open-plan office in the center of Kyiv, tech executive Dmytro Voloshyn lists off the tricky questions he’s dealt with over the last weeks as fears have soared over a possible Russian invasion. What will happen if things escalate? What to do with foreign staff? What will happen if martial law is declared? What if the banking system collapses? What if the internet gets cut? “We’ve basically had to prepare a contingency...
ANKARA: Turkey’s inflation hit a two-decade high near a whopping 50 percent in January, official data showed yesterday.
Turkey inflation surges to near 20-year high
ISTANBUL: Turkey’s inflation hit a two-decade high near a whopping 50 percent in January, official data showed yesterday, as a currency crisis decimated people’s purchasing power and complicated President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s path to re-election. The stronger-than-expected 48.7 percent rate followed a year-on-year rise of 36.1 percent in December, according to Turkey’s statistics agency, although some independent estimates put the real...
FRANKFURT: Crows fly over the skyline of the high-rise buildings of the banking district of Frankfurt am Main, western Germany, on early morning yesterday. —AFP
ECB sits tight as inflation pressure rises
BRUSSELS: The European Central Bank stuck to its ultra-loose monetary policy yesterday, despite record inflation in the eurozone putting the Frankfurt-based institution under mounting pressure. The inflation rate unexpectedly rose to 5.1 percent in the euro area in January, official data showed Wednesday. The figure is an all-time high since records for the currency club began in 1997, 0.1 points higher than the figure for December and well above...
BRIGHTON, UK: A photo illustration shows gas burning on a domestic hob in Brighton, southern England on Wednesday. —AFP
BoE agrees second rate hike in row as inflation skyrockets
LONDON: The Bank of England yesterday lifted its main interest rate for the second time in a row in a bid to tackle decades-high inflation. The BoE also said Britain’s annual inflation rate would peak at 7.25 percent in April, compared with 5.4 percent last December which was already near a 30-year high. The central bank slashed its interest rate dramatically in 2020 to help the economy weather the effects of the COVID pandemic. With soaring...
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Deutsche Bahn promises record rail investment
BERLIN: German rail operator Deutsche Bahn will put a record sum into renovating and expanding its network in 2022, the company said yesterday, as Europe’s largest economy seeks to decarbonize transport. Deutsche Bahn and the federal and regional governments will together invest 13.6 billion euros ($15.4 billion) in rail infrastructure, the group said in a statement. The figure is 900 million euros higher than the investments made in 2021. The...
HALLANDALE BEACH,†US: In this file photo, a ‘We Are Hiring” sign hangs near the entrance to Mo’s Bagels & Deli in Hallandale Beach, Florida. — AFP
US private hiring slumps in ominous labor market sign
WASHINGTON: US private companies shed jobs last month for the first time since December 2020 as the Omicron coronavirus variant again complicated business-a potential harbinger of bad news for the upcoming government employment report. Data from payroll services firm ADP released Wednesday said private employment declined by 301,000 in January, far worse than analysts expected, which the survey blamed squarely on the new virus strain.“The labor...
Pictures show one of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s palace complex near Baghdad International Airport. — AFP photos
Iraq struggles to make use of Saddam’s crumbling palaces
Scattered across Iraq lie more than 100 opulent palaces and villas built by former dictator Saddam Hussein-some in use, many in ruins like much of the war-scarred country. With their marble columns, ornate carvings and gaudy furniture, they reflected the megalomania and delusions of grandeur of Saddam, who visited some of them only once or twice. In his Babylon residence, the feared strongman’s profile is engraved in bas-relief like that of the...
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Dune’ leads the nominations for the BAFTA Film Awards with 11
Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic is up for a string of prizes at next month’s ceremony, including the prestigious Best Film accolade and Best Adapted Screenplay for the director, with the majority of its shortlisted places coming in technical categories such as Editing, Production Design, and Costume Design. The ‘Power of the Dog’ follows with eight nods, just ahead of ‘Belfast’ with six nominations and ‘Licorice Pizza’, ‘No Time...
An aerial view shows mansions in Kanadukathan town in India’s Tamil Nadu state.
India’s Chettinad mansions a testament to past glory
Thousands of mansions in a remote corner of India once housed some of the nation’s wealthiest bankers and traders but a century later most of them lie abandoned, their desolate remains a mute testament to lost riches. The tycoons of Chettinad, near the country’s southern tip, made their fortunes trading precious gems and spices across sprawling business empires that stretched as far as Malaysia and Singapore during the era of British colonial...
In this file photo (from left) Musicians Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and David Crosby of Crosby, Stills and Nash perform at a ‘No On Proposition 32’ concert at the Nokia Theatre LA Live in Los Angeles, California. — AFP
Crosby, Stills and Nash follow Young’s lead in Spotify row
Neil Young’s former bandmates from Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young said Wednesday they had asked their labels to remove their recordings from Spotify, making them the latest musicians to take a stand over misinformation on the platform. Last week, Young made good on his vow to have his music removed from Spotify after demanding that the streaming service choose between him and controversial podcaster Joe Rogan, with fellow folk rock superstar...
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ADDIS ABABA: Pedestrians walk past old Lada cars parked and ready to carry goods in the vicinity of a busy market in Addis Ababa. – AFP photos
The last of Ethiopia’s Soviet-era Lada cars
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KUWAIT: Kuwait’s new Amir HH Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah salutes as he swears in before lawmakers as the country’s 17th Amir, at the Kuwaiti parliament, on December 20, 2023 in Kuwait City. - Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat
Amir’s first year leading Kuwait drives development and unity
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KUWAIT: Cabinet ministers convene for their weekly meeting on Wednesday, December 18, 2024 at at Jaber Al-Ahmad International Stadium. — KUNA
Cabinet approves MoU with China to accelerate Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port
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Floating diwaniya on a yacht trip.
Kuwait’s hidden appeal
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KUWAIT: Lulu Kuwait Director Muhammed Haris meets with the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Edward, and Belinda Lewis, the British Ambassador to Kuwait at the reception.
Lulu Kuwait director attends Duke of Edinburgh reception