Skip to main content

Israeli occupier attacks threaten historic Christian presence in West Bank town

In Taybeh, one of the few Palestinian communities with a Christian majority in the occupied West Bank, fears are growing that Israeli occupier attacks on farmland and property could push more families to emigrate, threatening the town’s demographic character and historic Christian presence. Local officials and clergy warned of the impact of rising violence by Israeli occupiers, which has coincided with worsening living and economic conditions in the town. Taybeh, east of Ramallah, is one of the few Palestinian towns in the West Bank that still has a Christian majority, according to church and local accounts. Residents say the town’s Christian roots go back thousands of years. Residents say the attacks have deepened fears in the town, even as they stress their determination to remain on their land. Also Read: Pakistan raises red flag over illegal settlements in West Bank, calls for Israel accountability In recent years, Israeli occupiers have established several ill...
Post a Comment

Alphabet, Microsoft earnings show hefty AI bets are driving growth

Alphabet and Microsoft ignited a rally in technology stocks on Friday with earnings that showed big AI investments were driving growth, allaying doubts that their costly bets would take time to pay off after a soft forecast from Meta Platforms. After pouring billions of dollars into the infrastructure needed to support AI applications, both Alphabet and Microsoft reported that their quarterly revenue growth was outpacing expectations as more users turn to services including the Copilot AI assistant and the Gemini chatbot. AI services accounted for 7 percentage points of the 31% jump in revenue at Microsoft's Azure cloud-computing platform between January and March, finance chief Amy Hood said. Read: Former Google engineer indicted for stealing AI secrets to aid Chinese companies She added near-term AI demand was a bit higher than the company's capacity, which held back growth in the quarter and highlighted the need for spending to expand its infrastructure. At Google, cloud revenue jumped about 28% with strong growth in Google Workspace, where the Alphabet unit offers a slew of AI features powered by its large language model Gemini. The results contrasted with a warning of higher spending and softer-than-expected growth from social media giant Meta (META.O), opens new tab, whose stock tumbled 10% on Thursday. "This quarter illustrated how demand remains high for generative AI from Microsoft customers, and we continue to believe that Microsoft sits as a leader in this GenAI environment," D.A Davidson analyst Gil Luria said. "Meta is indicating the results of further increased investment may be years away while Microsoft and Google are showing them right now." Shares of Alphabet rose 12% in premarket trading as it sweetened the pot for analysts with its maiden dividend and a $70 billion stock buyback. The company was on track to add around $200 billion to its market value, which would vault it past the $2 trillion mark. Read: Alphabet, Meta ad sales in Q4 unlikely to reflect gen AI investments The world's fourth most valuable firm flirted with the milestone on an intraday basis over three years ago although it never closed above that level, according to LSEG Datastream. Microsoft gained nearly 4% and was set to add nearly $120 billion to its market value. The results sparked a 1% to 3% jump in tech stocks such as Amazon.com and Apple, which will report earnings on Tuesday and Thursday, respectively. AI chip stocks Nvidia, Advances Micro Devices (AMD.O), opens new tab and Marvell Technology also rose between 1% and 2%, riding on optimism that an ongoing boom in spending by tech giants would power demand for their semiconductors. "The three hyperscalers (major cloud companies) we've heard from thus far all highlighted a similar message on AI capital expenditure - this is an arms race, the AI opportunity is enormous, and spending will continue to be aggressive/ahead of market expectations," Bernstein analyst Michael Chiang said. Microsoft's capital expenditures grew by $300 million from the previous quarter to $11.5 billion, while Alphabet's capital expenditures were $12 billion, a 91% jump from a year prior. At least 19 analysts raised their price target on Alphabet, pushing the median view to $176.65, compared with its last close of $156. Microsoft saw 17 price-target increases from analysts, with the median view on the stock now at $475. Microsoft has a 12-month forward price-to-earnings ratio of 30.40, compared with Alphabet's 21.63. Some analysts believe the more premium valuation was justified. "Google Cloud showed improvement but less than the growth of Azure. Azure's enterprise focus and their differentiated capabilities played a part and we (and the market) await Amazon Web Services results," Bernstein analysts said.

from Latest World News, International News | Breaking World News https://ift.tt/jzZFeRW
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

At least 32 miners dead after bridge fails at cobalt site in southeast DR Congo

A bridge collapsed at a cobalt mine in southeast Democratic Republic of Congo killing at least 32 wildcat miners, a regional government official said Sunday. The bridge came down Saturday onto a flooded zone at the mine in Lualaba province, Roy Kaumba Mayonde, the provincial interior minister, told reporters. He said 32 bodies had been recovered and more were being searched for. The DRC produces more than 70 percent of the world supply of cobalt, which is essential for batteries used in electric cars, many laptop computers and mobile phones. More than 200,000 people are estimated to be working in giant illegal cobalt mines in the giant central African country. Local authorities said the bridge collapsed at the Kalando mine, about 42 kilometres (26 miles) southeast of the Lualaba provincial capital, Kolwezi. "Despite a formal ban on access to the site because of the heavy rain and the risk of a landslide, wildcat miners forced their way into the quarry," said Mayonde. He said ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Indian devotees splurge on jets, gold idols as Hindu temple opens

The private jet parking lots at airports near the Indian city of Ayodhya are full and the shops have run out of gold-plated idols, as wealthy devotees prepare for the invite-only opening ceremony of one of Hinduism's holiest temples. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Asia's richest man Mukesh Ambani are among the 8,000 or so attendees at Monday's inauguration event for the Ram Temple, which devotees believe is built on the birthplace of Lord Ram, a sacred Hindu deity. The construction of the temple, which began after the Supreme Court awarded the site to Hindus in 2019 more than two decades after a Hindu mob razed a mosque there, triggering deadly riots, fulfils a key campaign promise of Modi and his Hindu nationalist party. Read BJP-promised temple transforms Ayodhya: Muslims, locals feel neglected The opening ceremony, organised by the trust that built the temple, comes months before a national election which the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is widely expected to w...
Post a Comment
Read more

Indian opposition supporters detained ahead of protest at Modi's home

Police in the Indian capital detained dozens of opposition supporters on Tuesday as they attempted to march to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's residence to protest against last week's arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Kejriwal, a key opposition leader whose Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has governed the national capital territory for a decade, was arrested by the financial crime-fighting agency on corruption charges relating to the city's liquor policy, weeks before India begins voting in general elections on April 19. He was remanded to the custody of the Enforcement Directorate until March 28, with the lawyer for the agency arguing he was the "kingpin" in the case and needed to be interrogated. Kejriwal's party, all of whose main leaders are now imprisoned in connection with the case, says he has been "falsely arrested" in a "fabricated case". The federal government and Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) deny political interfere...
Post a Comment
Read more