Farnborough International Air show

Farnborough International Air show,  nets £39.3 billion ( $51 billion) in deals as the European plane maker Airbus announced orders for 69 & VietJet ordered 20 Airbus A330neo aircraft,  and Boeing 118 including an order for 20 777X Boeing aircraft ( revolutionary twin-aisle plane with the folding wings) from Qatar Airways and Korean Air signed  for 40 wide-body jetliners. Crisis-hit Boeing ,  Airbus shows off new ultra long-haul jet. Airbus performed a public display of its soon-to-launch A321XLR for the first time since it was certified. China’s Comac seen as a potential competitor to  Airbus and Boeing in the future … Continue reading Farnborough International Air show

Vultures are circling at the Titanic shipyard

Harland & Wolff has lined up administrators as vulture funds prepare to pick apart the company behind the shipyard that built the Titanic. Contingency plans have been drawn up by insolvency experts from Teneo in case financial advisers fail to thrash out an interim rescue. While Deloitte is advising the Harland & Wolff board, and EY is advising the government on its options. The shipbuilder already owes US hedge fund Riverstone $115 million on a loan that bosses have been trying to refinance, A further 20 million loan is under discussion. In the meanwhile, US technology stock dived sharply yesterday … Continue reading Vultures are circling at the Titanic shipyard

Toxic masculinity

For decades, the Kennedy name has been synonymous with wealth, power, and above all else – integrity. But this carefully c constructed veneer hides a dark truth: the Kennedy men’s legacy of physical and psychological abuse of women, part of a tradition of toxic masculinity that spans generations and has ruined untold lives.  Through scandal after scandal, the family and their defenders have managed to keep this shameful story out of spotlight. Long before the Lewinsky affair, JFK had multiple sexual encounters with White House interns, he even slept with one Mimi Alford, in his wife’s powder-blue bedroom. It’s no … Continue reading Toxic masculinity

Troubling reality of global supply chain

Peter Goodman, New York Time’s Global award-winning Economics Correspondent, makes an extraordinary journey to understand the worldwide supply chain – exposing both the fascinating pathways of manufacturing and transportation that bring products to your doorstep, and the ruthless business logic that has left local communities at the mercy of complex and fragile network for their basic necessities. How does the wealthiest country on Earth run out of protective gear in the middle of a public health catastrophe? How do its parents find themselves unable to locate crucially needed infant formula? How do its largest companies spend billions of dollars making … Continue reading Troubling reality of global supply chain

Forget Google Maps imaging mapping of Seven Seas

Victory that was owed to the cumbersomely named Hydrographical Office, the Royal Navy Department responsible for its charts, detailed maps of seas and coasts, with tidal ranges, water depths and other essential relevant details, after the battle of Copenhagen, in 1801, confronted by a formidable fixed line of Danish ships supported from the land, Admiral Horatio Nelson had to make a bold decision . Should he risk taking his ships into the narrow, shallow channel where the enemy lay, so that Nelson’s three ships ran aground before the battle had properly begun?  Admiral Parker, the commander of the British fleet, … Continue reading Forget Google Maps imaging mapping of Seven Seas

Underwear that safeguards, exposes, embarrass, excite, amuse and shame us

Stories are woven into fabric of our most personal garments from the first loincloths to the intricate layers of shapewear. The concealed world of underwear is capable of expressing individual desire and also aspects of society at large. Undergarments both safeguards and exposes, reflecting our hopes and experiences, Underwear can embarrass and excite, amuse and shame us. In India you tighten your langoti  which translates to “tighten your loincloth” similar to English saying Grid your lions or Japanese saying Fundoshi o shimete Kakaru translates tighten your lion cloth. Freelance writer Nina Edwards sets out to explore and evaluate the purpose, style … Continue reading Underwear that safeguards, exposes, embarrass, excite, amuse and shame us

Emergency landing for Air India Boeing 777 in Siberia

An Air India passenger Boeing 777 aircraft AI-183 flying from New Delhi to San Francisco was forced to land in the Russian region of Siberia at the Krasnoyarsk International Airport, on 18th July 2024, after the crew detected a potential issue in the cargo hold area, after smoke detectors were activated, according to Air India, in its second such incident on the route in just over a year. The incident puts added spotlight on the embattled aircraft manufacturer, Boeing, whose aircraft was used in the flight, as several Boeing planes have been involved in air incidents in recent past. Most … Continue reading Emergency landing for Air India Boeing 777 in Siberia

Bureaucratic inertia and geopolitical distraction

Lost Decade is a bureaucratic take on American policy’ slow  pivot  to the east and to Asia-cnetric geopolitics and its implications for America’s present and future. Across the political spectrum, there is wide agreement that Asia should stand at the center of US foreign policy. But this worldview, first represented in the Obama Administration’s 2011 “Pivot to Asia, marks a dramatic departure from the entire history of American grand strategy. Both trump and Biden continued in a similar vein to little effect. In the upcoming US election, both likely candidates President Joe Biden and ex-president Donald Trump more or less … Continue reading Bureaucratic inertia and geopolitical distraction

Struggles of America’s white working class

Donald Trump’s 2024 Vice-Presidential Candidate J.D. Vance  who grew up in the hills of Kentucky. His family and friends were the people most of the world calls rednecks hillbillies or White trash.  In this latest memoir, Vance tells the story of his family’s demons and of America’s problem with generational neglect. How his mother struggled against, but never fully escaped, the legacies of abuse, alcoholism, poverty and trauma. How his grandparents, “ dirt poor and in love”, gave everything for their children to chase the American dream. Vance’s grandma told him: “Never be like these losers who think the deck … Continue reading Struggles of America’s white working class

Nationwide’s £2.9bn takeover of Virgin Money

Over 600, 000 voters gave Nationwide’s board their backing in yesterday’s AGM,  of the £2.9bn takeover of Virgin Money, including the board’s re-election and directors’ pay packages receiving approvals of about 95  per cent or more. Nationwide’s CEO Debbie Crosbie’s maximum long-term bonus to £3.4mn.  Yesterday’s meeting which took place online was open to Nationwide’s 16 million members, as customers who have a current or savings account or a mortgage who owns the building society rather than shareholders. The Virgin Money takeover which will be the largest UK bank merger since the financial crisis, is set to make Nationwide the second-biggest provider of … Continue reading Nationwide’s £2.9bn takeover of Virgin Money