Business Point Today

A man was recently defrauded to the tune of Rs 12.24 lakh in a sextortion scam. It all started when the complainant sent a friend request to a female user.  Don’t Send/Accept Unknown Friend Requests On Facebook or other social media platforms, you should not accept friend requests from unknown users. Similarly, you should not send friend requests to individuals you don’t know.  Avoid Money Requests From Strangers If you’ve created a bond with a stranger on social media platforms, you should not entertain their requests for money. Don’t Take Part In Any Offers Scammers also try to loot the money from social media users by asking them to participate in offers or deals. One should avoid any such requests from unknown users on Facebook or other platforms.  Don’t Share Intimate Photos, Videos Social media users should avoid sharing intimate photos or videos with others. Fraudsters can use the media to blackmail you, as happened in the case described above.  Seek Help In case you have been l

Forty children are among hundreds of civilians trapped in a chemical plant in Severodonetsk, with the last bridge to the eastern Ukrainian city destroyed by Russian forces. The city has in recent weeks been the site of intense violence and has become a focal point for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ambitions to seize enough territory so that he can increase pressure on Kyiv. Sergiy Gaiday, the Governor of the Luhansk region, said the Azot plant was under heavy bombardment by Russian forces, putting the lives of those trapped inside at risk. "About 500 civilians remain on the grounds of the Azot plant. Forty of them are children," he said. The situation is similar to Russia's siege of the Azovstal steel plant in the south-eastern city of Mariupol, where hundreds of fighters and civilians were holed up for weeks with limited food, water and medical supplies. Ukrainian fighters there surrendered in May, bringing an end to the most brutal siege of the war to date. Read Mo

Saudi Arabia's Almarai, the Middle East's largest dairy company, plans to invest 405 million Saudi riyals ($108m) to drive its expansion into the seafood business and to secure poultry supplies as part of the kingdom's focus on food security. The dairy company's board of directors approved an initial investment of 252m riyals into the seafood processing business, which Almarai will finance from operating cash flows, the company said in a filing to the Tadawul stock exchange on Tuesday. The investment plan will expand Almarai's product range and contribute to the kingdom's “food security agenda as per vision 2030", the company said. The expected time frame of the seafood investment is 24 months from the date of final regulatory approval. Saudi Arabia has been increasingly focused on bolstering its food security through investments in local manufacturing and agricultural technology start-ups. The Russia-Ukraine crisis has led to an increase in the prices of b

Civilians in Severondonetsk are now trapped after Russian forces destroyed the last bridge out of the city, Luhansk regional governor said on Monday night. Russian troops are now in control of most of the eastern city, which sits in a strategic location in the battle for the Donbas region. Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described Ukraine's defence of Severondonetsk a fight for "literally every metre". Meanwhile, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto claimed on Monday said that both Ukraine and Russia are using heavier weapons, including in Russia's case thermobaric bombs. "We are supporting Ukraine with increasingly heavy weaponry. And on the other hand Russia has also begun to use very powerful weapons, thermobaric bombs that are in fact weapons of mass destruction," Mr Niinisto said during security policy talks at his summer residence in Naantali, Finland. Read More : https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/2022/02/18/russia-ukraine-latest-news

Today's weather will be fair in general, the National Centre of Meteorology has said. Some low clouds are predicted to appear Eastward. There may be light rainfall in those areas, with a probability of the formation of some convective clouds over the mountains by afternoon. Residents in Dubai and Abu Dhabi are in for a hot day as temperatures will rise to 43ºC and 44ºC, respectively. The weather is likely to get humid by night and Wednesday morning with a probability of fog or mist formation over some coastal and internal areas. Read More : https://www.khaleejtimes.com/weather/uae-weather-hot-fair-forecast-for-tuesday-mercury-rises-to-44oc

Pope Francis refused the distinction between “good and bad” in the war in Ukraine, he was quoted as saying by daily La Stampa, which reported Pope's conversation with editors of Jesuit European cultural magazines. Asked if he was in favor of Russia's president Vladimir Putin, the Pope answered: “No, I am not, I am simply opposed to reducing complexity to distinction between good and bad.” Pope Francis hopes to meet Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church in September in Kazakhstan, he added. Read More : https://english.alarabiya.net/News/world/2022/06/14/Pope-Francis-says-he-refuses-distinction-between-good-and-bad-in-Ukraine-war

A Canadian man who in 2018 rammed his rental van into a crowd of pedestrians in downtown Toronto, killing 11 people, was sentenced Monday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 25 years. Alek Minassian, who was 25 at the time of the attack, was found guilty by a Canadian judge just over a year ago, in March 2021. On April 23, 2018, Minassian drove a white rental van at full speed down streets and sidewalks in the Canadian metropolis, aiming at passers-by for a little more than a mile. Ten people were killed and 16 injured in the attack -- but the death toll rose to 11 at the end of October 2021 when an injured woman who had spent more than three years in hospital also succumbed to her injuries. Read More : https://english.alarabiya.net/News/world/2022/06/14/-Canadian-who-drove-van-into-Toronto-crowds-given-life-sentence-

Elon Musk will speak to Twitter Inc employees this week for the first time at a company-wide meeting since launching his $44 billion bid in April, a source said on Monday, citing an email from Twitter Chief Executive Parag Agrawal to staff. The meeting is scheduled for Thursday, and Musk will take questions directly from Twitter employees, the source added. Read More : https://english.alarabiya.net/News/world/2022/06/14/Elon-Musk-to-address-Twitter-employees-for-first-time-in-Town-Hall

British economic output declined for a second month in a row in April, weighed down by decades-high inflation, official data showed Monday. Gross domestic product fell 0.3 percent in April after a drop of 0.1 percent in March, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement. Output in the services, production and construction sectors fell -- “the first time that all main sectors have contributed negatively to a monthly GDP estimate since January 2021,” the ONS said, as the data added to fears of recession. The ONS noted that “businesses continued to report the impact of price increases and supply chain shortages.” The data comes as the Bank of England is set to raise its main interest rate at a fifth straight meeting Thursday in a bid to cool the pace of price rises. Read More : https://english.alarabiya.net/business/economy/2022/06/13/UK-economy-shrinks-for-second-month-in-a-row-in-April-weighed-down-by-inflation

THE NUCLEAR DEAL negotiated by President Barack Obama and Iran in 2015 was based on a simple premise: In exchange for lifting economic sanctions, Iran’s nuclear energy program would be put under strict international surveillance. The deal made sense for both sides. Iran would get sanctions relief and the chance to integrate itself in the global economy, and the United States would get an off-ramp to avoid yet another costly war in the Middle East. The agreement never really got a chance to take hold, however, because the U.S. broke its word. In a fit of personal pique at his predecessor — and with the encouragement of Israel and the Gulf Arab states — President Donald Trump violated the accord by unilaterally reimposing sanctions and waging a “maximum pressure” campaign aimed at collapsing the Iranian economy. Read More : https://theintercept.com/2022/06/10/iran-nuclear-deal-cameras-war/

Shyam Maheshwari is the founder and partner of SSG Capital Management. From the small town of Katihar in Bihar to getting his first job in Tokyo in Japan,  Shyam Maheshwari SSG feels it has been very fulfilling. He completed his undergrad and Chartered Accounting from Kolkata and MBA from IIM Bangalore. He got an opportunity to work for Lehman Brothers, right after the Asian Financial Crisis, in their Tokyo and Hong Kong offices as part of their special situation desk. He witnessed closely the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers which triggered the Global Financial Crisis and ultimately led to the founding of SSG Capital in early 2009.  He grew SSG Capital to be one of the premier and the largest special situation and credit funds in Asia over the next 12 years ultimately doing a strategic partnership and integration with Ares Management. After successful integration and transition, he has taken a break. But knowing his personality and having spoken to many industry participants, “break”

European leaders expressed solidarity with Ukraine on Friday as it marked 100 days since Russia invaded, but were challenged to state outright that they want the Ukrainians to win the war. Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, one of Russia’s fiercest critics in Europe, said it was “high time for us to believe in victory, just as firmly as Ukraine does”. His Estonian counterpart Kaja Kallas, another hard-line opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said western support “must continue until Ukraine wins and justice prevails”. Read More : https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/europe/2022/06/03/leaders-challenged-to-say-ukraine-must-win-after-100-days-of-war/

Lebanon's intelligence chief has said he will visit Syria for talks with Syrian leaders about the fate of a US reporter who went missing in Syria a decade ago. Major General Abbas Ibrahim, said US officials want him to resume efforts to bring home Austin Tice and other Americans missing in Syria. Tice, a freelance journalist and former marine, disappeared while reporting in 2012. In an interview with General Security magazine, his agency's official publication, Ibrahim said that in past talks with Damascus on Tice, Syria had raised demands related to the withdrawal of US forces, a resumption of diplomatic relations, and the lifting of some US sanctions. “We are working to resume the negotiations from where they ended” at the end of former President Donald Trump's term, he said. Read More : https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2022/06/03/Lebanese-spy-chief-says-he-will-visit-Syria-over-missing-US-reporter

Nigeria’s government has directed its state-run oil company NNPC to implement a deal on a gas pipeline to Europe through Morocco. Africa’s gas resources are increasingly in the spotlight as the European Union looks to wean itself off Russian supplies following the invasion of Ukraine in February. Approval for a memorandum of understanding on the gas project with West African regional bloc ECOWAS was given after a cabinet meeting, Nigeria’s Petroleum Minister Timipre Sylva told reporters in Abuja late Wednesday. Nigeria is Africa’s top oil producer and a major supplier of gas and liquefied natural gas. Read More : https://english.alarabiya.net/business/energy/2022/06/02/Nigeria-agrees-step-on-new-gas-pipeline-through-Morocco-to-Europe

Harini Logan kept trying to learn from her near-misses in online spelling bees. Recognized for years as one of the best spellers in the English language, she had never taken home a national title. In the biggest bee of them all, she endured a new series of setbacks, but somehow, at the end, she was still there. Harini was eliminated, then reinstated, during the Scripps National Spelling Bee’s much-debated multiple-choice vocabulary round. She misspelt four times as Scripps’ most challenging words proved too much for her and Vikram Raju, who also got four wrong in the closing stretch. And then she finally took down Vikram in the bee’s first-ever lightning-round tiebreaker on Thursday night. Read More : https://www.khaleejtimes.com/world/us-indian-origin-girl-14-wins-scripps-national-spelling-bee

Borouge, a chemicals joint venture between the United Arab Emirates’ main oil company and Borealis AG, surged in its trading debut after raising $2 billion in Abu Dhabi’s biggest listing. The shares rose as much as 20 percent to 2.95 dirhams on Friday, valuing Borouge at just over 88 billion dirhams ($24 billion). The shares were priced at 2.45 dirhams each. The IPO attracted $83 billion of orders in the latest sign of strong demand for listings in the region. It drew interest from the likes of BlackRock Inc. and Fidelity, Bloomberg reported last week. Seven cornerstone investors agreed to subscribe for $570 million worth of shares, including Gautam Adani, Asia’s richest man. Read More : https://english.alarabiya.net/business/markets/2022/06/03/Borouge-soars-in-debut-after-staging-Abu-Dhabi-s-biggest-IPO

Five Egyptian antiques have been seized from New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of an international trafficking investigation involving the former head of the Louvre in Paris. The artefacts are worth more than $3 million, according to the Manhattan district attorney's office. A New York state judge ordered their confiscation on May 19, a court document shows. They include a group of painted linen fragments depicting a scene from the Book of Exodus, which date from between AD250 and AD450. A representative of the district attorney told AFP they are related to the investigation in Paris in which Jean-Luc Martinez, who ran the Louvre from 2013 to 2021, was charged last week with complicity in fraud and "concealing the origin of criminally obtained works by false endorsement". "The pieces were seized pursuant to the warrant," he said. Read More : https://www.thenationalnews.com/mena/2022/06/03/egyptian-antiques-worth-3m-seized-from-new-york-museum/

“Enough, enough,” President Joe Biden exclaimed over and over as he delivered an impassioned address to the nation imploring Congress to take action against gun violence after mass shootings he said had turned schools, supermarkets and other everyday places into “killing fields.” If legislators fail to act, he warned, voters should use their “outrage” to turn it into a central issue in November’s midterm elections. Speaking at the White House on Thursday night, Biden acknowledged the stiff political headwinds as he sought to drive up pressure on Congress to pass stricter gun limits after such efforts failed following past attacks. He repeated calls to restore a ban on the sale of assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines — and said if Congress won’t embrace all of his proposals, it must at least find compromises like keeping firearms from those with mental health issues or raising the age to buy assault-style weapons from 18 to 21. Read More : https://www.khaleejtimes.com/worl

Actress Amber Heard is “absolutely not” able to pay ex-husband Johnny Depp more than $10 million in damages, her lawyer said on Thursday, after the Pirates of the Caribbean star prevailed in a bitter defamation case that Heard plans to appeal. The high-profile court battle ended on Wednesday, with the jury finding that both stars had defamed each other — but Depp was awarded millions more in damages. The jury awarded Depp $10m in compensatory damages and $5m in punitive damages, though Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Penney Azcarate reduced the punitive damages to $350,000, the state's legal limit, bringing the actor's total damages $10.4m, NBC reported. Asked on NBC's Today show if Heard would be able to pay, her lawyer Elaine Charlson Bredehoft said: “Oh no, absolutely not.” Ms Bredehoft added that Heard plans to appeal the decision. “She has excellent grounds for it,” she said. Read More : https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/us-news/2022/06/02/amber-heard-unable-to

Shares of Borouge, the joint venture between Adnoc and Austrian chemicals producer Borealis, surged about 18 per cent as the company made its debut on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange on Friday. The company, which made its debut on Friday under the ticker symbol of 'Borouge' had a market value of Dh86.87 bil­lion ($23.7bn) and was trading at Dh2.89 a share. Borouge successfully closed its $2 billion initial public offering on Tuesday, the biggest share sale on the ADX that was about 42 times oversubscribed. The company's IPO is the largest in Abu Dhabi’s history since Adnoc Drilling’s $1.1bn offering. The company sold about three billion shares to the public and had set the price per share for its 10 per cent float at Dh2.45 ($0.67). The proceeds of the transactions will go to selling shareholders – Adnoc and Borealis Middle East Holding, a wholly owned subsidiary of Borealis. Total gross demand for the IPO that also attracted India's billionaire Adani family amounted

The United States confirmed on Thursday it would join Europeans in backing a resolution urging Iran to co-operate with the UN nuclear watchdog, despite warnings from Tehran that the move could scuttle diplomacy. "We can confirm that we plan to join the UK, France and Germany in seeking a resolution focused on the need for Iran to fully co-operate with the IAEA," State Department spokesman Ned Price said. He said the latest report by the International Atomic Energy Agency raised "very serious concerns that Iran has failed to credibly respond" to the Vienna-based body's questions. "It is essential that Iran does fully comply with its legally binding obligations" under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Mr Price told reporters. Iran warned on Wednesday against "unconstructive action" at the IAEA and said it would respond "firmly and appropriately". Read More : https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/2022/06/03/us-to-back-iaea-resolu