What’s been making the News?

New developments on the collapse of China Evergrande Group (CEG) whose Chairman was placed under Police watch while Investors were banned from buying the company stocks.

In Northumberland in the UK, a 300 yrs. old, well renowned Sycamore Tree protected by the Park Authority & National Trust that has featured in many movies including Robin Hood, the Prince of Thieves that starred Kevin Costner was cut down. There was outpouring of shock and anger because it was an inspiration to Artists, Writers and Photographers and the Authorities are still investigating to find out, who was responsible after 2 people aged 60 & 16 were arrested. For more details, please visit the following link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-66966187

 

New York Supreme Court Judge found former President Trump liable for fraud claiming he deceived banks, insurers and others by largely over-valuing his assets and exaggerating his net worth, in order to, secure more funds and obtain loans. Other claims for which he is waiting to be indicted include: falsifying business records, conspiracy to falsify business records, issuing false financial statements, conspiracy to falsify false financial statements, insurance fraud & conspiracy to commit insurance fraud.

The US for the first time, issued a fine of $150,000 (£125,000) to Dish Network for leaving space debris/junk orbiting the earth after the company launched in 2002 and admitted liability of its EchoStar-7 Satellite in 2022 for lack of compliance with the FCC regulations. “Space junk is made up bits of tech, such as, old satellites and parts of aircrafts that are no longer in use and risk collisions. To date, over 10,000 satellites have been launched into space since 1957 and more than half are out of use. Where are they then? The International Space Station (ISS) had to move out of the way to avoid debris flying past, which is rather scary! The question is what’s to be done with many more satellites expected to be launched into space to make the earth safe from debris dropping down on earth?

 

City of Herat in Afghanistan suffered an earthquake of the magnitude of 6.3 with hundreds dead and more than a thousand injured. The World Bank estimates that there are 1.9 million people in Herat, which shares a border with Iran in the East. Afghanistan suffers frequently from earthquakes in the Hindu Kush mountain range because it lies at the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates. In June 2022, the province of Paktika was hit by an earthquake of the magnitude of 5.9, which killed over a 1,000 people and left tens of thousands, homeless.

 

The World woke up on Saturday Oct 7th to barbaric atrocities and carnage carried out by Hamas militant & terrorists against Israel when they attacked a Kibbutz where a music festival was taking place, killing, maiming and injuring more than 250 people, as well as, taking more than 200 hostages. In return, Israel launched an offensive to eradicate the group’s capability to attack Israel. Unfortunately, ordinary Palestinians have been caught up in the retaliatory bombings by Israel as Hamas uses its citizens in Gaza as human shield.

The situation is dire with many Palestinians also dead & displaced. Meanwhile, at the UN the resolutions being proposed are not calling for the immediate release of all hostages by Hamas while at the same time advocating for a cease-fire and for humanitarian aid. All 3 must happen simultaneously. And there are fears of the conflict spreading further, with other actors in the region getting involved, such as, Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The International community and World leaders have warned outside actors not to get involved as it could turn into a broader conflict with the US and UK stationing aircraft carriers and warships/vessels in the Mediterranean and air-defense systems as a deterrent.

Questions need to be asked as to how Israeli security and defense failed, especially, as one of the hostages who was released attested to the fact that prior to the raid at the Kibbutz and the massacres that occurred, there had been warnings after fields were burnt down by Hamas terrorist fighters in the neighbourhood and they had warned Israel but the warnings were not taken seriously by the govt.

Also, one has got to wonder what the motivation was for Hamas to carry out such inhumane and barbaric acts? Perhaps, to thwart the normalisation of relations between Israel and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as the last Arab state to recognise and trade with Israel, which would have left Palestinians on their own while the other Arab States have all moved on! Would that work? I honestly don’t think so because the Arab States want to progress and move beyond hostilities and constant strife and endless conflicts that continues to risk human life! Attitudes have changed over the years as people have become tired of the lack of progress on the Peace process nor for the terrorists to accept to live side by side with the Jewish State of Israel, which they want to wipe out! What gives anyone/group the right to want to wipe out others because they consider them to be infidels/occupiers?

 

How did they allow this to go so wrong and get so bad? After Israel was attacked by terrorists Hamas and wanted revenge by going after the terrorists in Gaza and announcing that Palestinian Civilians should leave Gaza, they should have all been evacuated to Qatar since Qatar understands Hamas leaders and has the resources because it already provides funding for Palestinians in terms of aid, infrastructure, including hospitals etc. It might not be such a bad idea to move all Palestinians to Qatar, as that might be the only way to have peace or alternatively, move the Jewish people to a different location. Either way, one group needs to be moved out of there, for there to be everlasting peace, if both cannot live in peace, side by side. The 2 state-solution hasn't worked and won't work, as Israel expands its settlements and Palestinians feel oppressed!

 

UK Govt announced the end of bankers’ bonus cap that was introduced by the EU for all member nations, following the financial meltdown in 2008 to limit the amount of risk taken and for good governance. A 4-month consultation held by Regulators (the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), came to the conclusion that the Policy had "unintended consequences" as there was less room to vary employee pay due to "material poor performance or misconduct" and that they have other tools at their disposal, such as being able to defer bonuses or claw them back later if bankers are found to have taken undue risk.

 

On Technology News, Meta which owns FB and WhatsApp, doubled its projected profits in Q3 from £7.7bn to £9.6bn, an increase of 164%. Overall revenues increased by 23% to £28.2bn as against the $27.6bn that the Wall Street had predicted. Although, advertising revenue dropped as a result of economic uncertainty and high interest rates, Meta’s revenue increased from £22.5bn in 2022 to £27.8bn. The Company’s costs and expenses stood at £16.8bn, a 7% drop with total costs amounting to between £71.8bn & £73.5bn as against previously estimated forecast of £72.7bn - £75.1bn. The Company cut 21,000 jobs, and has stopped all under-performing projects to achieve efficiencies.

 

Google lost £137bn of its value, as its shares fell by 10% due to the under-performance of its Cloud Computing service, which competes with Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS) and rated 3rd. Google Cloud Service lost £20 million expected revenue even though it had very strong results in other areas of the business. Profits increased by 40% (£16.1bn) from 2022 with increase in revenue of 11% amounting to £63bn. 

 

Microsoft’s consistent performance was praised as its revenue grew to £47bn with profits of £18.3bn in Q3, an increase of 27% and its Cloud service up by 19%. The Company is also performing strongly on the AI market-sphere. Its shares rose by 3%, which amounts to £60bn, increasing its valuation to £2trillion.

Europe won the 2023 Ryder Cup by 161/2 – 111/2 against the US under the Captaincy of Luke Donald in Rome. Congratulations to team Europe and Commiserations to team USA.