With diamond-finish wheels, this Ferrari car packs a 720-horsepower punch

Today on the Pebble Beach Golf Course in California, Ferrari unveiled the 50th convertible model it has ever made, the Ferrari 488 Pista Spider.

This 488 Pista Spider is the continuation of Ferrari’s top-selling 488 line. It has the most powerful Ferrari V8 engine ever—720 horsepower on twin-turbos—and a unique barking rev sound thanks to the fact that it now packs a retractable rooftop. The Pista Spider can go to 62mph in 2.8 seconds; top speed is 211mph. (Pista is Italian for “track,” after all, which signifies just where this car is best suited to live.)

But there’s not much to see here that is new from the 488 Pista, except for that folding roof.

Besides the bold blue racing stripe down the front of the car, the most notable changes to this 488 Pista Spider are its new diamond-finish 20-inch alloy wheels with a novel 10-spoke star-effect and the optional one-piece carbon-fiber wheels that offer a 20-percent weight reduction over the forged alloys that come standard with the car. Launch control is still there, actuated by a button on the LaFerrari-like carbon-fiber outcropping, as are the dynamic traction control settings and a chassis firm enough to make you feel like a true speedracer—even on your way to Malibu Kitchen.

Delhi electrician's son bags US job with annual package of $100,000

Son of an electrician from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, Mohammad Amir Ali bagged a job at an American firm with an annual package of $100,000, reported the national daily The Times of India.

According to the report by ToI, this is the highest package which has been offered to a diploma holder from Jamia. Second, among seven brothers and sisters, Ali had always been passionate about electric vehicles. Even after scoring good marks in his board examinations, he couldn't get through Jamia's BTech course for three consecutive years. He was selected for a course in architecture in NIT Jharkhand, but he couldn't join due to financial constraints. He took admission in a diploma course in mechanical engineering in Jamia in 2015 and passion for electric vehicles finally found an outlet.

According to the report, Ali has been quoted saying, "Charging infrastructure for electric vehicles is a major challenge in India. I developed a theory. If I succeed, the cost of charging vehicles will be almost zero. But initially, my teachers didn't believe me as it was a new area of work." His professor Waqar Alam realised the potential of his project and guided him through it.

Donald Trump sets 25% tariff on $50 bn of Chinese goods, faces retaliation

US President Donald Trump announced hefty tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese imports on Friday as Beijing threatened to respond in kind, in a move that looks set to ignite a trade war between the world's two largest economies. Trump, whose hardline stance on trade has led him to wrangle with allies, said in a statement that a 25 per cent tariff would be imposed on a list of strategically important imports from China. 

He also vowed further measures if Beijing struck back. “The United States will pursue additional tariffs if China engages in retaliatory measures, such as imposing new tariffs on United States goods, services, or agricultural products; raising non-tariff barriers or taking punitive actions against American exporters or American companies operating in China,” Trump stated. Earlier, China vowed to do just that, saying it would strike back, just hours before Trump’s statement. 

Trump has already said the US would hit another $100 billion of Chinese imports if Beijing retaliated. Washington and Beijing appeared increasingly headed toward a trade war after several rounds of negotiations failed to resolve US complaints over Chinese industrial policy, market access and a $375 billion trade gap. “If the United States takes unilateral, protectionist measures, harming China's interests, we will quickly react and take necessary steps to resolutely protect our fair, legitimate rights,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said.

All trade commitments to fail if Trump goes ahead with tariffs: China

All commitments made so far in talks with the US over trade will be withdrawn if President Donald Trump carries out his threat to impose tariffs, China said Sunday While both sides reported some progress in discussions this weekend about how to reduce China’s $375 billion goods-trade surplus with the US, Trump’s revival last week of a plan to slap tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese imports has cast the talks into turmoil. “If the US rolls out trade measures including tariffs, all the agreements reached in the negotiations won’t take effect,” state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Sunday, citing a statement from the Chinese team that met with a US delegation led by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. The Xinhua report came after Ross met Sunday with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He for talks that Ross called “friendly and frank, and covered some useful topics about specific export items.” At the same time as negotiators focus on technical steps to reduce the US deficit, Trump’s swerve has rattled Beijing as it raises the possibility that any agreement made could be simply torn up by the president.

Trade war on 'hold', but tariffs will be back if China breaks promises: US

The Trump administration won’t impose tariffs on Chinese products for now, after the two nations made progress on trade issues during two days of talks, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.

“We’re putting the trade war on hold. So right now, we have agreed to put the tariffs on hold while we try to execute the framework,” Mnuchin said on “Fox News Sunday.”

President Donald Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on as much as $150 billion in Chinese imports to punish Beijing for allegedly violating American intellectual property and unfair trade practices. China vowed to retaliate with tariffs on everything from soybeans to airplanes.

Mnuchin’s remarks will be a relief to investors, who had feared the world’s two biggest economies were on the brink of an all-out trade conflict. The International Monetary Fund has warned that a global trade war would undermine the broadest global upswing in years.

Trade war averted: China to buy more from US to slash $200 bn trade deficit

China will “significantly increase purchases” of US goods, the White House said as Beijing’s special envoy at talks in Washington declared a trade war has been averted between the world’s two largest economies.

A joint statement released by the White House following the talks didn’t place a dollar figure on the increased purchases by China, or address a comment by President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser suggesting Beijing had agreed to slash its annual trade surplus with the US by $200 billion.

Vice Premier Liu He, a special envoy of China’s President Xi Jinping, told reporters in Washington that talks with US officials, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, ended with a pledge not to engage in a trade war, according to a Xinhua news agency report.

Liu said the two sides agreed to stop “slapping tariffs’ on each other, Xinhua reported. Liu said his trip to the US had been positive, pragmatic, constructive and productive. Trade cooperation would be enhanced in such areas as energy, agriculture, health care, high-tech products and finance, a “win-win” choice for both nations.

Venezuela's President also wants North Korea style talks with the US

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has called for dialogue with Washington similar to that between the US and North Korea, but warned that he will not give in to threats from Donald Trump.

"I think that the processes of dialogue between Democratic Republic of Korea and the US government are very positive and could serve as an example" for a rapprochement between Washington and Caracas, Maduro told a news conference in the southern city of Bolivar.

However, he noted differences between the tensions between the White House and Venezuela and those between the US and North Korea, as "we do not have nuclear missiles." But the talks with Pyongyang "could serve as an example that the world needs tolerance, dialogue, respect for differences," Maduro said ahead of a campaign event for Sunday's election.

The early polls are being boycotted by the Venezuelan opposition, and much of the international community has condemned them as illegitimate.

Think twice' before you 'Thunder': N Korea threatens to scrap Trump summit

North Korea abruptly canceled talks with South Korea and warned the U.S. to “think twice” about the fate of President Donald Trump’s planned meeting with Kim Jong Un next month, tamping down hopes of a breakthrough at the historic summit.

North Korea told South Korean authorities that it was “indefinitely” suspending minister-level talks planned for Wednesday, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said. North Korea cited the annual South Korean-U.S. “Max Thunder” air defense drills in its decision to call off the meeting, which was intended to discuss implementing last month’s peace declaration with South Korea.

“The U.S. will have to think twice about the fate of the DPRK-U.S. summit now on high agenda before a provocative military racket against the DPRK in league with the south Korean authorities,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday, using an abbreviation for North Korea’s formal name. “We will closely watch the ensuing behavior of the U.S. and the South Korean authorities.”

Behind Seattle's Amazon Tax: A tech boom that sent house rents soaring

It was, as the local public radio station said, the day “Seattle Nice” died. On May 2, the residents of Seattle were hit with a one-two punch. For months, the city council had been debating a new tax on large employers to raise $75 million for new affordable housing and services for the homeless, whose growing population had burst out of shelters and into tents around the city.

In the late morning, just before a council hearing, a columnist for the Seattle Times broke the news that Amazon.com Inc., the city’s largest employer, was playing hardball. The typically hermetic company said it paused expansion plans for buildings that would house about 7,000 employees pending the outcome of the upcoming tax vote.

Later that night, hundreds of residents packed a Methodist church in the gentrifying Ballard neighbourhood, turning what was supposed to be a civil town hall discussion into a scrum that exposed deep division in the city.

Gaza Strip: 55 Palestinians killed while protesting US embassy in Jerusalem

At least 55 Palestinians were killed and 2,771 were injured on Monday as Israeli troops fired on demonstrators along the Gaza-Israel boundary protesting the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem, making it the deadliest day of violence since the 2014 Gaza war.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today accused Israel of "state terror" and "genocide" after Israeli forces killed at least 55 Palestinians on the Gaza border.

In one of his most vehement broadsides ever against the Jewish state, Erdogan also announced three days of national mourning over the deaths, as well as a giant protest in Istanbul on Friday.

US blocks call for independent Gaza inquiry at UN

Despite the bloodshed, Trump hailed the move in a video message. He told the dedication ceremony that it had been a "long time coming", adding: "Israel is a sovereign nation with the right to determine its own capital but for many years we failed to acknowledge the obvious."

China offers a financial industry exam in English, first test on May 4

Industry exams in English are the latest example of China’s financial opening up.

Starting next month, for the first time, foreign senior staff of private securities funds will be able to take the industry’s qualifying exam in English, the Asset Management Association of China said on its website April 12. The tests are for staff including chairmen and presidents, as well as investment, research and trading heads.

Fidelity International, UBS Asset Management and Man Group are among foreign firms licensed for China’s 2.6 trillion yuan ($414 billion) private securities funds industry, which caters to qualified domestic companies and wealthy individuals, rather than selling products to the public as mutual funds do. The qualifying exams were previously only offered in Chinese, sending foreign firms scrambling for the limited pool of local language speakers to fill such posts.

“This new development is a major step toward welcoming global talent,” Liu Ming, a senior associate at Shanghai-based consulting firm Z-Ben Advisors, said in an email. “This offers more opportunity for foreign managers to transfer key senior members of their overseas teams to oversee and run their China operations.”

Facebook scandal: Cambridge Analytica may be probed for breaking poll laws

A top American senator has sought an investigation into potential violations of federal election law by Cambridge Analytica (CA), the scandal-hit communications firm at the heart of the Facebook data scandal.

Whistleblower Christopher Wylie, a founding employee of CA, has accused that the firm, hired by Donald Trump during his primary campaign, illegally mined tens of millions of users' Facebook data and then used it to target potential voters.

In a letter to the FEC, Senator Richard Blumenthal said that Wylie's disclosures have raised significant issues that warrant the attention of the FEC pertaining to the involvement of foreign nationals and political action committees in the management of election campaigns.

"I urge the FEC to take these allegations seriously, open an investigation into possible violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) by Cambridge Analytica and its clients, and take enforcement action as necessary," Blumenthal wrote.

Trump's trade war and the $470 billion hit to the global economy

A full-blown trade war could cost the global economy $470 billion, according to Bloomberg Economics.
The U. S. decision to slap tariffs on steel and aluminum may just be the beginning, with President Donald Trump warning of more levies and other economies promising to respond. Cecilia Malmstrom, the European Union’s trade chief, vowed on Monday to “stand up to bullies.”

In a scenario where the U. S. implements a 10 percent levy on imports and the rest of the world retaliates, analysis by Bloomberg Economics published Monday says the global economy would be 0.5 percent smaller by 2020 than it would have been without tariffs. According to economists Jamie Murray and Tom Orlik, that’s an extreme scenario, “but it’s no longer an impossible one.”

They see the move rippling through the world economy in a number of ways, starting with faster inflation that dents U. S. consumer demand, which in turn hurts other economies’ exports. Retaliation would see the inflation shock replicated in other nations, with goods substitution hitting

North Korea's Kim ready to give up nukes if his regime safety is guaranteed

North Korea is open to denuclearization if the safety of Kim Jong Un’s regime is guaranteed, South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s office said.
The two leaders will meet for a summit at the end of April along the border, the statement said, adding that North Korea was ready for candid talks with the U. S. to normalize relations.
“North Korea has clearly expressed its intention for denuclearlization on the Korean peninsula, and if there is no military threat, and North Korea’s regime security is promised, they have clarified that there is no reason to hold nuclear weapons,” Moon’s office said.
US President Donald Trump has said that North Korea must be willing to denuclearize before talks can begin.

Tensions have risen over the past year as Kim has sought the capability to strike the US homeland with a nuclear weapon.
North Korea has agreed to halt nuclear and missile tests while talks are taking place, Moon’s office said. It also pledged to avoid using nuclear or conventional weapons against South Korea, it said.

US core consumer prices record biggest gain in 11 months in December

Underlying US consumer prices recorded their largest increase in 11 months in December amid strong gains in the cost of rental accommodation and healthcare, bolstering expectations that inflation will gain momentum this year.

The Labor Department said its Consumer Price Index excluding the volatile food and energy components rose 0.3 per cent last month also as prices for new motor vehicles, used cars and trucks and motor vehicle insurance increased.

That was the biggest advance in the so-called core CPI since January and followed a 0.1 percent gain in November. Core CPI increased 1.8 percent in the 12 months through December, picking up from 1.7 percent in November. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast core CPI rising 0.2 percent month-on-month and holding steady at 1.7 percent on an annual basis.

Weak import and producer price reports this week had raised concerns about the inflation outlook, although the two reports do not have a strong correlation with the CPI data.

Economists are hoping that a tightening labor market, rising commodity prices and a weak dollar will lift inflation toward the Federal Reserve's 2 percent target this year.

The U. S. central bank's preferred inflation measure, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index excluding food and energy, has undershot its target since May 2012.
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US hopes Pakistan would 'do the right thing' and 'turn over terrorists'

The United States on Friday expressed hope that Pakistan would do the right thing and "turn over" the terrorists and honour its commitment to it, according to a Trump administration official.
"I have a feeling, I am hopeful that Pakistan will do the right thing and turn over the terrorists and honour their commitment," Steven Goldstein, the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs told reporters at a news conference here.

Responding to questions, Goldstein said the US has so far not heard from Pakistan on its reported decision to suspend its military and intelligence cooperation with it in retaliation of the Trump administration's decision to freeze all its security assistance.

"We would hope that Pakistan would come to the table and that they would turn over those terrorists that we have asked be turned over. We've indicated very clearly that we believe that can happen," Goldstein said.
The United States, he said, has only suspended the aid; and the money has not been reallocated.
"So now it is the job of Pakistan to take seriously their commitment to us, and most importantly to the people of Pakistan who would most be hurt by this, by any terrorist activity, and come forward.

So, our position hasn't changed. They have not yet come forward," Goldstein said.
At a separate news conference, the Pentagon said that Pakistan has the ability to address terrorist threat inside the country,.
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Wall Street climbs on higher oil prices, quarterly earnings' reports

US stocks rose on Thursday with a broad-based rally across sectors as speculation over China halting US bond purchases eased and investors focused on quarterly earnings reports and higher oil prices.

US crude futures rose to $63.82 a barrel, its highest since December 2014, boosted by a surprise drop in US production and lower crude inventories.

Positive brokerage recommendations on oil majors Exxon and Chevron lifted their shares, helping the S&P energy index climb 0.62 percent.

"It's back to a generally positive mode," said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Florida.

At 9:34 a.m. ET (1434 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 46.19 points, or 0.18 percent, at 25,415.32 and the S&P 500 was up 5.29 points, or 0.19 percent, at 2,753.52.

The Nasdaq Composite was up 12.79 points, or 0.18 percent, at 7,166.36.

The S&P and the Nasdaq snapped their six-day rally on Wednesday after Bloomberg News reported Chinese officials had recommended halting its U. S. bond purchases, which China dismissed later.

Also weighing on the dour sentiment was a Reuters report on Wednesday that Canada is increasingly convinced U. S. President Donald Trump would soon announce an exit from the North American Free Trade Agreement.
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Trump does a U-turn on Paris climate accord, says US could rejoin deal

President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the United States could "conceivably" return to the Paris climate accord, although he stopped short of signalling any move in that direction.

"Frankly, it's an agreement that I have no problem with, but I had a problem with the agreement that they signed, because, as usual, they made a bad deal," Trump told a news conference.

"So we can conceivably go back in," added the president, who pulled out of the 2015 accord on curbing global warming emissions last June.
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Wall Street slips after report says China may slow US bond purchases

Wall Street's major indexes slipped on Wednesday, stalling the rally that marked the start of 2018, after a report that China is considering slowing or halting purchases of US government debt.

Apple, Microsoft and Amazon were among the biggest drags on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq, while a 0.7 percent drop in Boeing and Caterpillar weighed on the Dow.

The S&P and the Nasdaq have closed at record highs on every single day in 2018, buoyed by optimism over global economic growth and expectations of strong quarterly earnings.

"For a market that was probably looking for reason to take a pause, it's not unreasonable to use today's rise in yield as a catalyst," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B Riley FBR in Boston.

The dollar dropped 0.4 percent against a basket of currencies, while long-dated Treasury yields hit fresh 10-month highs after Bloomberg reported the US bond market was becoming less attractive for Beijing.

The CBOE Volatility index, a widely followed measure of market anxiety, rose to its highest level in more than a week at 10.41.

At 9:46 a.m. ET (1446 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 67.02 points, or 0.26 percent, at 25,318.78 and the S&P 500 was down 7.64 points, or 0.27 percent, at 2,743.65. The Nasdaq Composite was down 25.48 points, or 0.36 percent, at 7,138.09.
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I am a mentally stable genius, asserts Donald Trump

Unfazed by fierce criticism and fears over his "mental" health, US President Donald Trump on described himself as being a "genius".

"Now that Russian collusion, after one year of intense study, has proven to be a total hoax on the American public, the Democrats and their lapdogs, the Fake News Mainstream Media, are taking out the old Ronald Reagan playbook and screaming mental stability and intelligence," Trump tweeted.

Identifying "mental stability" and being "really smart" as his two greatest assets, Trump in a series of tweets said that winning the presidential election on his first attempt qualifies him as a "genius".

"Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart. Crooked Hillary Clinton also played these cards very hard and, as everyone knows, went down in flames," he said.

"I went from VERY successful businessman, to top TV Star to President of the United States (on my first try)," he said.

"I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius and a very stable genius at that!" he tweeted.

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