Bhinneka News Online: Monday Morning Briefing: Is Wall Street's beloved FANG losing its bite?

Monday 26 March 2018

Monday Morning Briefing: Is Wall Street's beloved FANG losing its bite?

Highlights

Is Wall Street's beloved FANG stock quartet breaking up? The outcry over Facebook’s handling of users’ data has bled $75 billion from the social media company’s stock market value, with concerns about potential regulation of internet companies also hurting Alphabet.

Opinion polls published yesterday in the United States and Germany cast doubt over the level of trust people have in Facebook over privacy, as the firm ran advertisements apologizing to users. However, anyone tempted to #DeleteFacebook is still likely to be monitored by the social network, which tracks nearly 30 percent of global website traffic.

Remington, one of the largest U.S. makers of firearms, filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday to carry out a debt-cutting deal with creditors amid mounting public pressure for greater gun control. Thousands gathered in Washington DC for in a "March for Our Lives" protest over the weekend demanding gun control after recent school shootings.

World

At least 64 people, including children, were killed by a fire which engulfed a busy shopping mall in the Siberian city of Kemerovo. The fire, one of the deadliest in Russia since the break-up of the Soviet Union, swept through the “Winter Cherry” shopping center yesterday afternoon.

China said it is willing to hold talks with the United States to resolve their differences over trade, as alarm grows over a possible trade war between the world’s two largest economies. World stocks came off six-week lows and U.S. stock futures jumped on optimism surrounding the talks.

Commentary: A growing cohort of pro-Russian politicians in Europe is untroubled by Putin's illiberal policies and benefits from his support. “The danger of the populist-nationalist-far-right/far-left affection for Russia ... is that it renders increasingly faint the distinction between a charismatic authoritarian leader and the messiness of democratic rule,” writes John Lloyd.

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Fanny Potkin

@f_potkin

The great @patpichatan interviews the fabulous queens of Drag Race Thailand as they sashay and lipsynch their way for greater LGBTQ acceptance in Thailand. Some fierce performances, beautifully illustrated by TV/pix https://reut.rs/2DUx9Ft

11:18 AM - MAR 26, 2018