TikTok Surges Forward, Shrugging Off Trump Threats – Bloomberg — www.bloomberg.com
Highlights:
– According to Sensor Tower, the app was the most downloaded and highest-grossing non-game during the first half of this year, surpassing 3 billion total installs.
– Research firm App Annie says the app has surpassed Google’s YouTube for average time spent per user in the U.S. and the U.K.
– TikTok’s own career site gives the clearest insight on what the app will focus on for its next big thing: live-streaming social commerce.
– TikTok plans to invest aggressively to cultivate live-streaming creators in numerous categories—including fashion and beauty, lifestyle and technology—and empower them to sell merchandise directly on the platform.
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Saudi Aramco Confirms Data Leak After Ransomware Cyber Attack – Bloomberg
Highlights:
– The Associated Press reported earlier that 1 terabyte of Saudi Arabian Oil Co. data had been held by an extortionist, citing a web page it had accessed on the darknet. The state-owned driller was offered the chance to have the data deleted for $50 million in cryptocurrency, the AP said.
– The Middle East has previously been a magnet for some of the world’s costliest hacks, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP said in a 2016 report.
– Energy companies from electric utilities, to power-grid operators to pipeline operators have warned that cyberattacks are becoming more and more prevalent.
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EXPERIENCE LIVING IN PIXEL
Pixel is the first mixed-use residential community at Makers District. Pixel offers its residents & visitors a unique space to enrich, collaborate & engage.
Designed as human-scale, the 7 mixed-use residential towers surrounded by quiet pocket gardens have been strategically arranged around a vibrant pedestrianized plaza.
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The Anti-Macron Independent Looking to Topple France’s President – Bloomberg — www.bloomberg.com
Highlights:
– Xavier Bertrand reckons he can topple the banker-turned-president by casting himself as the anti-Macron candidate.
– The 56-year-old former health and labor minister is emerging as a potential dark horse in next year’s presidential election — which many assumed would be a straight contest between Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen.
– A recent survey gave him 18% of the votes in the first round of the presidential contest, with Le Pen and Macron both around 25%
– Bertrand is often described as being compatible with centrists, yet he holds many conservative views.
– We need to reduce inequalities, or we’ll fail at reforming the country,” Bertrand said on the sidelines of an economic conference in Aix-en-Provence, southern France, earlier this month.
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Billionaire Who Missed Out on TikTok Is Trying to Beat It – Bloomberg — www.bloomberg.com
Highlights:
– In 2017, Su Hua, the founder of a Chinese startup called Kuaishou Technology, was on the verge of closing the biggest deal of his career.
– But arch-rival ByteDance Ltd. swooped in with a better offer, and Su missed out on what has become a global sensation.
– Su isn’t wasting a moment. Kuaishou plans to expand in countries like Brazil and Indonesia, rather than TikTok’s stronghold in the U.S.
– While TikTok tends to be stocked with photogenic, dancing teenagers, Su’s stars are a diverse, at times low-brow, crew of entertainers, often from rural regions.
– Kwai, its most successful export and the international twin to its domestic platform, has been downloaded more than 76 million times in the first half of 2021 in countries such as Brazil and Mexico.
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European ESG Assets Shrank by $2 Trillion After Greenwash Rules – Bloomberg — www.bloomberg.com
Highlights:
– Sustainable investment assets fell to $12 trillion in Europe during 2020 from $14 trillion in 2018, the report states. The decline isn’t the result of dampened investor enthusiasm for ESG investments, it’s because policymakers have tightened the parameters for what can be considered a responsible investment, said Simon O’Connor, chair of the GSIA.
– Europe has led the global charge into ESG investments and its banks and fund managers are most advanced in calculating the impacts of their operations on climate change and biodiversity.
– The EU’s anti-greenwashing rules known as the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, or SFDR, were introduced in March and require fund managers to evaluate and disclose the environmental, social and corporate governance features of their financial products.
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Tom Barrack Arrested Days After Interview About Trump, Real Estate, Investing – Bloomberg — www.bloomberg.com
Highlights:
– A week before he was charged with illegal lobbying for the United Arab Emirates, Tom Barrack travelled to New York for an on-camera interview in Midtown Manhattan.
– Barrack, who was one of Trump’s biggest backers on Wall Street and chaired the committee that funded his inauguration.
– We’re in the midst of zero interest rates. Everybody’s yield-driven. With so much liquidity, the world is in a thirst for yield. For me, it’s time to not look at yield and look at the total return.
– What I’m saying is, “I want you to come along with me because it’s a scale that creates the opportunity.” I need additional capital.
– You have deep and long-standing ties to the Qataris, the Emiratis. You have a history in Saudi Arabia that goes back to one of your first jobs ever in the 1970s.
– I’m only interested in doing high-quality, extraordinary, rare and scarce transactions that have a gigantic total-return potential. I’m not in the asset-management business, I’m not in the other silos that they need to invest in, and I’m not giving them a pitch on a fund.
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Fledgling UAE rail network step towards bridging the Gulf – France 24 — www.france24.com
Highlights:
– Hammadi is the first Emirati to become a train driver — in a country that already has a space programme and two of the world’s biggest airlines, but is only now developing a rail network to connect all seven of its emirates.
– When completed, Etihad Rail will operate 1,200 kilometres (750 miles) of track connecting all of the emirates — from Ghweifat in the western region of Abu Dhabi to the emirate of Fujairah on the eastern coast — and link with neighbouring Saudi Arabia.
– The long-term plan is to be part of a wider railway network that would connect all six Gulf Cooperation Council countries, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar as well as the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
– Freight is currently the line’s main focus but as it is extended through the mountains between the emirates of Dubai and Fujairah, the line is also set to offer passenger services that will run at speeds of up to 200 kph (125 mph).
– Etihad Rail says that one full freight train can replace 300 trucks, and cut CO2 emissions by 70-80 percent.
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Dr. Atie J. El Mouallem – Letter Requesting Donation for School — atiejelmouallem.com
Our school “Lady of the Tower School for the Sisters of the Holy Family” is located in Bekaa- Lebanon in the district of Deir El Ahmar. It is on the main road between Btedhi and Chlifa. Its ultimate goal is our children’s spiritual and educational lives.
From 1932 till now, our school still taking care of poor children, but due to the economic circumstances in Lebanon in general, and in our school in particular, we require your generous attention in the form of donations. Your donation and help can bring a smile to thousands of faces by helping them to achieve a good life and to continue their learning in our school.
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