Posts by Liam Redmond
Oil rises as US-Iran peace talks stall, Hormuz shipping slows
Published Mon, Aug 17, 2026 · 06:49 AM — Updated Mon, Aug 17, 2026 · 12:32 PM [NEW DELHI/SINGAPORE] Oil prices rose on Monday (Aug 17) as fading expectations of a US-Iran peace breakthrough and slower tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz reinforced geopolitical risk concerns in the market. Brent crude futures rose as…
Read MoreStripe clinches over US$7 billion deal to buy AI firm OpenRouter
Published Mon, Aug 17, 2026 · 06:39 AM STRIPE has finalised an agreement to acquire OpenRouter, a startup that helps companies switch between artificial intelligence models, for more than US$7 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. The deal, just months after OpenRouter raised money at a reported US$1.3 billion valuation, underscores the demand…
Read MoreCrypto wallet provider SafePal discloses data breach affecting nearly 40,000 users’ order information
Published Mon, Aug 17, 2026 · 05:54 AM CRYPTOCURRENCY wallet provider SafePal on Sunday (Aug 16) disclosed a data breach that involved unauthorised access to about 39,798 customers’ order information, including personal details such as names, addresses and purchase data. An authorisation flaw in the order tracking system allowed access to another customer’s order information…
Read MoreKnife-wielding NYC maniac shot, critically injured after charging at cops
Cops shot and critically injured a knife-wielding maniac at a Manhattan apartment building Sunday afternoon, law-enforcement sources said. Officers were called to a home at 126 Ludlow St. on the Lower East Side over a domestic dispute when the man charged at cops with a large knife around 4 p.m, sources said. One of the…
Read MoreDems now favor socialism over capitalism by this overwhelming amount: new poll
WASHINGTON — Democrats now overwhelmingly have a more favorable view of socialism than capitalism, according to a shocking new poll. Nearly 60% of party members support socialism compared to 18% who view it negatively, while just 32% have a favorable view of capitalism compared to 50% who see it as negative, according to the CBS News/YouGov…
Read MoreFast Takes: The unmaking of Jason Arday, the left declares war on parents and other commentary
Campus watch: The Unmaking of Jason Arday Though he “cannot help but feel bad for [Jason] Arday and his family,” American Greatness’ Roger Kimball also can’t “forget that his fabulations were directed not only at aggrandizing himself”: The professor was “perfectly happy to play the race card to damage others, as when he complained to…
Read MoreHong’s narrow Wisconsin loss: Letters to the Editor — Aug. 17, 2026
The Issue: The rise of democratic socialists, despite Francesca Hong’s loss in Wisconsin. To those who smugly celebrated the defeat of lunatic socialist Francesca Hong in Wisconsin: She still got over 300,000 votes and lost by a bare nubbins (“Socialism’s persona non-starter,” Isaac Schorr, Aug. 13). As November approaches, vigilance by those of us who…
Read MoreLI cops chase hooligans town to town to nix wild street takeovers before finally busting 15
Long Island cops chased hooligans from town to town to thwart massive weekend street takeovers before finally nailing them wildly burning rubber and busting 15 of them. The Suffolk County Police Department’s Street Takeover Task Force moved in on the scofflaws Saturday just after midnight as the road rabble-rousers shut down a street in Medford,…
Read MoreEmerging-market currencies cap best streak since 2024
Published Sun, Aug 16, 2026 · 08:16 PM EMERGING-MARKET (EM) assets rose on Friday (Aug 14) as a shift in the US interest-rate outlook added to bullish sentiment around artificial intelligence, pushing equities to cap the best week in nearly two months and sending a gauge of currencies on the longest streak of gains since…
Read MoreAlibaba’s Qwen hits 3 billion downloads, outpacing China and US AI rivals
Download and derivative-model figures are one measure of influence in the US-China AI race Published Sun, Aug 16, 2026 · 04:41 PM ALIBABA Group Holding’s open-weight models have accumulated more than 3 billion global downloads in the past six months, eclipsing Meta Platforms, Alphabet and domestic peers to become the world’s No 1 artificial-intelligence model.…
Read MoreUS$70 billion in ‘phantom liabilities’: Why bond traders are worried about AI firms’ credit backstops
How should investors gauge the probability that these off-balance-sheet contingencies will turn into on-balance-sheet problems? EVEN before Nvidia’s splashy US$500 billion financing partnership on Aug 11, investors were starting to fret over the roughly US$70 billion in phantom liabilities that do not appear on major AI companies’ balance sheets, but could materialise at the worst…
Read More‘Full of confidence’ in South-east Asia: Cosco Shipping eyes investments in Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia to power growth
The logistics player bets on regional presence amid manufacturing growth and Chinese trade flows [SINGAPORE] Mainboard-listed Cosco Shipping International (Singapore) is looking to South-east Asia for growth, betting that rising manufacturing activity and more complex supply chains will lift demand for logistics services across the region. The logistics service provider plans to invest further in…
Read More