American Express’ affluent cardholders got comfortable spending more freely again late last year, Chief Financial Officer Christophe Le Caillec told CNBC. Spending on AmEx cards jumped 8% year over year in the fourth quarter after slowing from a 7% growth rate early in the year to 6% during the second and third quarters, according to the firm’s earnings presentation. While the year-end pickup was seen ...
Universal is hoping the excitement around “Wicked” can hang around — for good. The movie studio faces a unique challenge: promote and release two build-on films just one year apart. Part one of the “Wicked” cinematic project dazzled at the box office, collecting more than $700 million in global ticket sales through Sunday. Not only did it have the highest opening ...
A rare “stay at home” warning has been issued for parts of the United Kingdom and Ireland as a severe storm lashes the region, bringing dangerous 100mph (160 kmh) winds and unleashing travel chaos. Storm Éowyn, an extratropical “bomb” cyclone that has formed in the North Atlantic and intensified rapidly, has hit rail services, delayed flights and forced road closures. ...
Israel says it has received a list of four female hostages Hamas is due to release on Saturday as part of a ceasefire deal. The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said that the list was received through mediators and added that Israel’s response would be provided later. This is a developing story and will be updated. This post appeared first on ...
US President Donald Trump’s policy on Ukraine is a little scattered and meandering, and at times misinformed. But be in no doubt that it exists and seems an unanticipated priority. Trump’s policy on Ukraine distinguishes itself in two ways in the first week of his administration. The first is his persistent criticism of the economic damage the Kremlin head is ...
Thirteen-year-old Zakariya Barbakh had spent most of his life shuffling between hospitals across Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Israel. Born without a lung, he had struggled to breathe. Doctors had predicted he would need a transplant if he were to reach adulthood. But the last 15 months of war in Gaza had made that impossible. When the ceasefire between ...
Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed Friday that “the crisis in Ukraine” might have been prevented if Donald Trump was in power at the time, saying he was ready to talk with the new US president about the conflict. Trump has long claimed that the war in Ukraine would not have happened under his watch, but Friday marked the first time ...
Whispers rippled through the court in the moments before Prince Harry’s lawyer sensationally revealed a settlement had been reached with Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. But for those at London’s High Court on Wednesday, the 11th-hour drama hadn’t been entirely unexpected. Rumblings emerged the day before, on what should have been the first day of the trial over alleged unlawful information ...
The sound of gunfire and explosions filled the air as residents of the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank hauled their belongings down the muddy pathway. Smoke billowed from multiple areas in the camp’s Al-Hadaf neighborhood, while a bulldozer razed a building in the distance and Israeli military convoys drove past nearby. Either way, the men, women, children ...
Hours after Donald Trump’s chilly inauguration in Washington, Taiwan’s parliament voted to freeze billions of dollars in defense spending, in a move some worry could frustrate the famously transactional president, who has already demanded Taipei pay “more” for US protection. The US is the main ally and arms supplier of Taiwan, a democratically ruled island and semiconductor powerhouse, which China’s ...