His mediation efforts could now be needed more than ever, as the French President Emmanuel Macron seems to have lost patience in dealing with his German colleagues. Macron fought hard to show that it was not true that Germany was using its strong economic position to reinforce its EU’s political dominance. He also proposed measures to anchor France and Germany into a quasi-irreversible European institutional structure. Predictably, France’s high unemployment, rising poverty, social unrest and ne

Stand for Hong Kong.” Men walk past a poster at an NBA exhibition in Beijing, China October 8, 2019. “There is great concern in the United States about what is going on in Hong Kong,” Rice said. We can’t tell the people of Hong Kong we are going to do something we can’t do, that we’re somehow going intervene in Hong Kong. Hong Kong currently operates under the “one country, two systems” principle where Beijing gives Hong Kong’s citizens some legal and economic freedoms that it denies people on m

A visitor tries out Lenovo augmented reality glasses with the Star Wars Jedi Challenges during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, February 26, 2018. Yves Herman | ReutersMost of the biggest names in Big Tech are racing to create smart glasses that we wear everywhere and that may replace our phones. Advocates of the technology hope that you’ll one day be able to replace every screen in your life with just one pair of smart glasses. Those functions could all work on a set of smart glas

Billionaire investor Mark Cuban suggested in a series of weekend tweets that the proposed wealth tax from 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., “diverts attention from reality” and is designed to hide her own wealth from the public. Cuban, who owns the Dallas Mavericks of the NBA, highlighted Warren’s income and net worth, which at $12 million puts her squarely among the top 1% in America. Warren’s net worth is actually in fourth place in the Democratic field, behind billio

Former Uber Technologies CEO and co-founder Travis Kalanick walks on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during the company’s IPO May 10, 2019. Uber co-founder and director Travis Kalanick sold more than half a billion dollars worth of stock last week after the company’s lockup period expired. The company’s market value is now about $45 billion, down from nearly $70 billion at the end of its first trading day. Kalanick still directly owns more than 75 million shares in Uber, according to th

With Pokémon Sword and Shield a few days away, Game Freak has released the game’s official launch trailer, which gives us a look at a couple of new faces. But, more importantly, Game Freak slyly revealed the existence of a more British-looking Mr. Based on existing Pokémon leaks, we know that this is Mr. Rime — a new evolution for Mr. It’s a great design that speaks to how much Game Freak continues to have fun with its Galarian forms and region-specific evolutions. Pokémon Sword and Shield are o

To help celebrate the 2019 League of Legends World Championships, Riot Games has put out yet another music group: True Damage. There have been metal band skins for a made-up group called Pentakill, k-pop-esque skins for K/DA, and now there’s a set of hip-hop skins for True Damage. Even people who don’t play League of Legends may have noticed that Riot Games has been hyping up True Damage on their social media platforms for weeks. Unlike K/DA, this new group is a hip-hop group, not a k-pop group.

Everywhere you look, there are arguments about the upcoming game and its limited Pokedex, and whether or not Game Freak is justified in its design decisions. Other times, Pokémon has managed to help people through the toughest times in their lives. I’m grateful Pokémon continues to be here for me and for so many others. And it’s lovely to hear that so many of you are looking forward to the launch of #PokémonSwordAndShield next week!! But, for the most part, it’s a love-fest — and a much needed o

Google’s game streaming platform, Stadia, will launch on Nov. 19, and early adopters will get access to 12 games on launch day. Stadia’s launch lineup will include one platform exclusive — surreal fantasy adventure Gylt from Tequila Works — and the recently released Windows PC version of Red Dead Redemption 2. But the launch games for Stadia consists mainly of older PC games, including Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Destiny 2, and three Tomb Raider titles. The Founder’s Edition will launch in United

FaZe Jarvis, the 17-year-old Fortnite personality who got permanently banned for using cheating software in his videos, has been under intense public scrutiny over the past week. But as the public debates whether or not public content creators should be held to a different standard than everyday players, the controversial influencer has been mostly mum about the fallout — until now. He also uses this opportunity to announce that he’s going to take a short break from making new videos. But, rathe

On Monday afternoon, Blizzard Entertainment revealed a new Overwatch short story, called Valkyrie, featuring Mercy, also known as Dr. Angela Ziegler. But the final shot in the post shows what looks to be a new Mercy skin. The skin looks to be Mercy in normal people garb. We can’t confirm if this is an official Overwatch skin or not — although it sure looks like one. It’s always nice to play with Overwatch characters in their civilian clothes, and it looks like Mercy players may get that chance s

And so, when the Red Dead Redemption 2 guide stated that the western featured a legendary “channel catfish,” people believed it. But now that the PC version of Red Dead Redemption 2 out there, players can peruse the game files to see what’s hidden. Alas, the channel catfish remains but a myth, never to be caught. The fish isn’t the only mystery that players have resolved since the release of Red Dead Redemption 2 on PC. Don’t try looking for the channel catfish.

On Sunday, Nov. 10, Nintendo 64 modder Kaze Emanuar released their newest project: Super Mario 64 Land. The major features for Super Mario 64 Land look to be a Super Mario 3D World style overworld map, and new powers for Mario —gained when wearing the Tanooki and Cat suits. There are also new worlds, including a Super Mario 64 level in the style of Super Mario World. They’ve also helped create a Super Mario Sunshine mod for Super Mario 64. To download Super Mario 64 Land, you can follow Emanuar’

A steepening yield curve is a positive sign for growth, and those sectors are closely linked to cyclical performance of the economy. “I would say as the yield curve steepens, it has a positive impact on equity prices on a relative basis. He looked at relative return going back 10 years, vs. the 2-year to 10-year yield curve. The yield curve steepens when interest rates on longer duration bonds are higher than on the shorter duration and the spread between them gets wider. At that point, the 3-mo

The hope is that AR can be the next major computing platform that replaces phones, computer screens, televisions and more with a pair of smart glasses. The first headset will be big, according to the Information, which said it will be similar in size to Facebook’s large Oculus Quest virtual reality headset. Apple’s headset and glasses will use cameras for augmented reality, similar to what’s already available on modern iPhones and iPads, the report said. Apple plans to reduce the size of that wi

Asia Pacific markets saw losses throughout the region by Monday afternoon, as shares in Hong Kong tumbled amid worsening tensions in the city. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index was deep in negative territory, declining 2.62% by the close as political turmoil in the city worsened. Sectors across the board in the Hang Seng index tumbled, including property developers, tech, financial, as well as gaming stocks. On the earnings front, Singapore’s DBS Bank reported a stronger-than-expected rise in it

The data marks a rebound from the second-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) which contracted by 0.2%. On a year-on-year basis, third-quarter growth slowed to 1%. Walker said there had been some modest growth in retails sales and he had hoped this might prop growth up a little more. “Underlying growth in the U.K. is clearly below trend,” he said before adding that when accounting for Brexit-related swings in production, the data looked “a little bit tepid.” The Bank of England said last week th

European leaders need to “wake up” and act amid a “considerable” risk that the European Union will disappear in the future, French President Emmanuel Macron has warned in an interview with The Economist. The bloc emerged in the wake of World War II with the aim of avoiding conflict and bringing economic prosperity to the region. “I don’t think I’m being either pessimistic or painting an overly gloomy picture when I say this. According to the French president, the EU has been too focused on growi

Outgoing European Central Bank (ECB) executive board member Benoit Coeure will lead a new unit at the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) focused on financial technology like digital currencies, the group announced Monday. Coeure was tapped to run the BIS’ new “Innovation Hub,” which was set up earlier this year to understand how technology is affecting central banks around the world. The BIS, known as the central bank of central banks, is based in Basel, Switzerland. It is owned by 60 centr

Movie director Woody Allen and Amazon’s content arm have settled a $68 million legal battle after the U.S. company canceled a contract at the start of this year. But in papers filed Friday, the two parties agreed the case should be dismissed, according to an AP report. Allen’s daughter Dylan Farrow accused her father of molesting her in an attic in 1992 when she was 7 years old, an allegation Allen has repeatedly denied. Allen’s company, Gravier Productions, got an international release for “A R