DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

[1/5] People put out burning barricades that were set on fire by supporters of Senegal opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, after Sonko was sentenced to prison in Dakar, Senegal June 1, 2023. Nine people were killed in clashes between riot police and Sonko supporters on Thursday after he was sentenced to two years for corrupting youth. The opposition says the verdict, which could prevent Sonko from running in elections next year, was politically motivated. Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar was the epicentre of Thursday's violence, with protesters setting buses alight and throwing rocks at riot police, who responded by firing tear gas. One student, Alioune Ndiaye, said he planned to travel hundreds of miles to his home in eastern Senegal to escape the violence.

Persons: Ousmane Sonko, Sonko, Abdou Karim Fofana, Cheikh, Alioune Ndiaye, Macky Sall, Sall, Mouhamad Diouf, Diouf, Adji Sarr, Cheikh Hann, Bate Felix, Cooper Inveen, Sofia Christensen, Anait, Edward McAllister, Angus MacSwan, Frances Kerry Organizations: REUTERS, Army, Security, Cheikh Anta Diop University, Authorities, Thomson Locations: Senegal, Dakar, DAKAR, Senegalese, West, Ouakam

DAKAR, May 8 (Reuters) - The presidential bid of a popular Senegalese opposition politician was thrown into doubt on Monday after a court of appeal handed him a heavier suspended sentence in a libel case, triggering a small protest in Dakar that riot police quelled with tear gas. But Monday's appeal hearing extended the suspended sentence to six months, said lawyer Boubacar Cissé, who represents the minister. "If this sentence is final, there is a good chance that his candidacy will be inadmissible," Diaw said. He has six days to file an appeal with the Supreme Court. Aside from the latest ruling, Sonko is also charged with raping a beauty salon employee in 2021 and making deaths threats against her.

☆ Director Damien Chazelle to head Venice Film Festival
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

ROME, May 5 (Reuters) - Damien Chazelle, the Oscar-winning director of hit movies "La La Land" and "Whiplash", will head the main competition jury at this year's Venice Film Festival, organisers said on Friday. The Franco-American director, screenwriter and producer has close ties to the festival, having opened the prestigious event with two of his films in the past decade -- "First Man" in 2018 and "La La Land" in 2016. "I am humbled and delighted to be invited to lead this year's jury," he said in a statement after his appointment was announced. French director Alice Diop, whose first feature-length fiction film, "Saint Omer", won the Silver Lion and Grand Jury Prize at last year's festival, will head the jury to decide who should win the award for a debut film this year. The 80th edition of the festival, held on the lagoon city's Lido island, will run from Aug. 30 to Sept. 9.

☆ Senegalese entrepreneur creates first locally made surfboards
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Ngouda Dione | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The surf scene is dominated by locals, many of whom surf on old boards donated or passed down from older surfers. But Diouf, who is also a surfing instructor, aims to change that by increasing the availability of locally made boards. Although he also repairs boards, making them is now his focus. "Board making really needs to pick up," said surfer Aita Diop, who competes with a board made by Diouf. "Tomorrow, I hope we will see Sunugal surfboards all over the world."

☆ 'We should be worried': Finance leaders warn rising interest rates are squeezing low-income countries
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Elliot Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Ernest Ankomah/Getty ImagesLeaders of several global financial bodies warned that rising interest rates are increasing pressure on low-income developing countries, around 60% of which are now in or at high risk of debt distress. A lot of the debt accrued by low-income countries is coming due over the next couple of years, however, and rising interest rates mean these countries will find it increasingly difficult to meet their repayments. As such, van Trotsenburg called for "renewed solidarity with developing countries" from international bodies and major economies not just in the form of words, but with increased resources. "That's actually something that we raised a decade ago when we saw a rapid rise in the indebtedness levels of low-income countries. Diop said establishing a firm path toward economic growth in developing economies would enable them to generate investment and stand a better chance of meeting future loan obligations.

REUTERS/Anna KudriavtsevaWASHINGTON, April 14 (Reuters) - Ukraine secured promises of $5 billion in additional funding to support its ongoing fight against Russia amid "fruitful meetings" in Washington this week, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told reporters on Friday. Shmyhal met with representatives of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the European Investment Bank as well as top U.S. officials, on the sidelines of the spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank. Ukraine needs about $14 billion in funding this year to close a budget gap, Shmyhal said, noting that the United States would provide $2.3 billion to plug the hole, while the European Union would provide 1 billion euros ($1.10 billion). The IFC program aims to leverage these donor funds using private sector investments, which will be needed to help cover the staggering cost of Ukraine's recovery. "A strong private sector is essential to help Ukraine's economy recover and support reconstruction efforts," said Makhtar Diop, the IFC's managing director.

☆ IFC MD: 60% of low-income countries at risk of debt distress
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailIFC MD: 60% of low-income countries at risk of debt distressMakhtar Diop, the International Finance Corporation's managing director, speaks to CNBC's Joumanna Bercetche at the 2023 Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund.

☆ NBA roundup: Warriors hang 157 on Blazers, glide into playoffs
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +12 min

Shaedon Sharpe added 18 points to go with a team-high seven rebounds, while Jeenathan Williams had 17 points for Portland. New Orleans' Brandon Ingram had 42 points and 12 rebounds, CJ McCollum scored 23 points and Trey Murphy III had 20. Lindell Wigginton scored 17 points and Bobby Portis had 16 for the Bucks. Jaden Hardy led all scorers with 25 points, with Theo Pinson forging a triple-double (23 points, 13 rebounds, 12 assists) for the Mavericks. De'Aaron Fox, who scored 13 points, played less than 18 minutes.

☆ NBA roundup: Wolves take key step in play-in race with win
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Jazz 118, Nuggets 114Rookie Ochai Agbaji scored a career-high 28 points and Utah concluded its home slate with a win over Denver in Salt Lake City. Kris Dunn finished with 19 points, 14 assists and eight rebounds for the Jazz. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope scored 21 points and Jamal Murray netted 20 in the loss for Denver, which had already clinched the No. Kevin Knox led the Trail Blazers with game-high totals in points (30) and rebounds (11). Shaedon Sharpe scored 26 points and Trendon Watford added 24 for Portland.

☆ NBA roundup: Suns secure No. 4 seed in West
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Deandre Ayton scored 16 points, and Devin Booker had 15 points and eight assists. Christian Braun scored 15 points, Jeff Green had 14 and DeAndre Jordan registered 12 points and 11 rebounds. Bam Adebayo supplied 14 points and eight rebounds, while Max Strus also had 14 points as Miami connected on 18 of its 39 shot attempts from beyond the arc. Joel Embiid paced the 76ers with 21 points, six rebounds and two blocks, while James Harden finished with 14 points, four rebounds and four assists. Kris Dunn finished with 22 points, eight assists and seven boards, while Kelly Olynyk totaled 16 points, 14 rebounds and eight assists to pace the Jazz.

☆ NBA roundup: Red-hot Knicks outlast Celtics in double OT
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +10 min

Julius Randle added 31 points and nine rebounds for the Knicks, who also received 29 points and 11 rebounds from RJ Barrett. Jayson Tatum had 40 points, 11 rebounds and six assists for the Celtics, who have lost their last two home games. Bennedict Mathurin scored 17 points, Myles Turner added 16 and Chris Duarte had 15 for Indiana. Kelly Oubre Jr. scored 17 points for Charlotte, which dropped its third straight. Walker Kessler (17 points, 10 rebounds) and Kelly Olynyk (15 points, 10 rebounds) each had double-doubles in the loss.

☆ Brentford beat Fulham to fuel European dream
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

LONDON, March 6 (Reuters) - Brentford fuelled their ambition of playing European football with a 3-2 home victory over fellow hopefuls Fulham to extend their unbeaten run in the Premier League to 12 games on Monday. Ivan Toney's second-half penalty and a late effort by Mathias Jensen sealed the points for ninth-placed Brentford against their west London rivals to edge them closer to the European qualification places. Brentford had taken an early lead with a deflected shot by Ethan Pinnock but Fulham hit back shortly before halftime when Manor Solomon scored for the fourth successive league match. The hosts were rampant and Bryan Mbeumo grazed the upright with a free kick before Toney also saw a free kick bounce back off the woodwork. Fulham levelled in the 39th minute when another free kick hit the frame of the goal but this time Andreas Pereira's superb effort bounced down for Israeli Solomon to nod home.

☆ NBA roundup: Malik Beasley leads revamped Lakers to win
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

Anthony Davis scored 12 points with 12 rebounds for Los Angeles. Klay Thompson scored 22 points and Ty Jerome added 20 for the Warriors, who were without Stephen Curry (leg) and Andrew Wiggins (personal). Evan Mobley had 31 points and nine rebounds, Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland scored 22 points each, and Jarrett Allen had 14 points and 13 rebounds for the Cavaliers. Tatum had 31 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists. Anunoby returned from a wrist injury to score 12 points, but Toronto was without Fred VanVleet (personal).

☆ NBA roundup: Bucks best Clippers for 10th straight win
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +9 min

Brandon Boston Jr. scored 20 points and Paul George added 19 points and 11 rebounds for the Clippers. Norman Powell had 16 points and Marcus Morris Sr. scored 15 for Los Angeles, which has lost two games in a row. Domantas Sabonis put up 18 points, 11 rebounds and a team-high seven assists for the Kings. Detroit's Jaden Ivey supplied 17 points, eight rebounds and eight assists, while Isaiah Stewart had 15 points and 11 rebounds. Desmond Bane added 20 points, seven rebounds and five assists, while Jaren Jackson Jr. tallied 15 points and six rebounds.

[1/9] Czech presidential candidate Petr Pavel and his wife Eva Pavlova react at his headquarters, after results are announced for the country's presidential election, in Prague, Czech Republic January 28, 2023. Pavel, a 61-year-old retired general running for office for the first time, won 58.3% of the vote with all voting districts reporting final results, defeating billionaire ex-premier Andrej Babis, a dominant but polarising force in Czech politics for a decade. Pavel has also fully backed continued support for Ukraine in its defence against Russia's invasion. Babis, 68, a combative business magnate who heads the biggest opposition party in parliament, had attacked Pavel as the government's candidate. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy congratulated Pavel on his election on Twitter and said he looked forward to close cooperation.

☆ NBA roundup: Mavs win game but lose Luka Doncic
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Knicks 120, Celtics 117 (OT)Julius Randle scored 37 points and Jalen Brunson added 29 as New York came back to win in overtime in Boston. Brunson added four rebounds, seven assists and two blocks, rejecting Malcolm Brogdon's potential game-tying 3 at the buzzer. Jayson Tatum had 35 points and 14 rebounds while Jaylen Brown added 22 points in Boston's third straight loss. Zach LaVine had 18 points and nine rebounds, Patrick Williams posted 15 points in his hometown, and Nikola Vucevic (nine rebounds) and Ayo Dosunmu each had 12 points. Norman Powell added 15 points for Los Angeles, with Robert Covington scoring 13 and Reggie Jackson and Ivica Zubac contributing 12 and 11 points, respectively.

☆ European partners are helping businesses in Ukraine, IFC managing director says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailEuropean partners are helping businesses in Ukraine, IFC managing director saysMakhtar Diop, managing director at the International Finance Corporation, discusses how Ukraine's economy has been impacted by the war.

☆ ‘Saint Omer’ Review: A Mother on Trial
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

France’s “Saint Omer,” which has made it to the 15-film shortlist of contenders for the Academy Award for Best International Feature, has the trappings of a courtroom drama but with a far stranger script. For starters, the guilt of the woman in the dock, for drowning her infant in the sea, isn’t in question. The movie takes place mostly in a courtroom in Saint-Omer, a town near the northern shore of France. An author named Rama (Kayije Kagame) has obtained a seat for the jury trial of Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanda), a Senegalese-born immigrant who caused her own baby to die in the waters of the English Channel, having taken a train to the town of Berck-sur-Mer for that purpose. Based on a real trial that took place in 2016 and was witnessed by the filmmaker Alice Diop , a specialist in documentaries who co-wrote and directed “Saint Omer,” the film inverts the conventions of the legal drama by, for instance, concluding without showing us a verdict.

Entrepreneur Ellie Diop is passing down to her kids three money lessons she wishes her parents had taught her early on. Diop also wants her kids to learn how it feels to be paid fairly for their work. Today, Diop is teaching her children three key lessons about building wealth that she wishes she learned from her parents. Diop wants her kids to learn how to properly manage their money"I grew up with a single mother," Diop says. By paying her kids for small tasks around the office, Diop wants to teach them how to have a different relationship with money than she did growing up.

☆ Saudi Arabia win is statistically biggest World Cup shock, say Gracenote
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Mitch Phillips | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Appearing for the first time, England were favourites to win the 1950 World Cup in Brazil while the Americans were a semi-professional squad. England, featuring future World Cup winning manager Alf Ramsey in defence, dominated but lost to Joey Gaetjens' first-half header. It would be another 44 years before the U.S. would win another match at the World Cup. A Czech team who had reached the 2004 European Championship final were expected to go deep in the World Cup and opened with a 3-0 demolition of the United States, while Ghana, making their World Cup debut, had already lost to Italy. Wales did not appear in the World Cup again until Monday's 1-1 draw with the United States.

☆ Saudi Arabia’s victory over Argentina is the greatest upset in World Cup history, says data company
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Alasdair Howorth | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

According to sports data group Gracenote, Argentina’s 2-1 defeat by Saudi Arabia in their Group C match is the biggest upset in World Cup history. All the pre-match talk focused on Messi, one of the world’s greatest ever players who is likely playing his last World Cup. According to Gracenote, the previous most surprising World Cup win was USA’s victory against England in 1950, in which the American team had a 9.5% chance of victory. David Cannon/Getty ImagesDiego Maradona had taken the world by storm at the 1986 World Cup, delivering a succession of spectacular individual performances as Argentina claimed its secondd title. Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesAhead of the 1950 World Cup in Brazil, football had been fully professional in England for decades, though this was the English team’s first appearance at a World Cup having chosen not to appear in the previous three tournaments.

☆ NBA roundup: Heat storm back to defeat Suns
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Butler produced a double-double for the second time in three games, posting 16 points and 13 rebounds. The Suns' Deandre Ayton had a double-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds. That reserve unit also featured Damion Lee, who scored 14 points. Luguentz Dort had 21 with three 3-pointers, and Aleksej Pokusevski logged a double-double with 16 points and 14 rebounds. The Clippers turned 11 Houston turnovers into 16 points before the break while the Rockets missed 10 of 13 3-pointers.

☆ NBA roundup: LeBron James, Anthony Davis lead Lakers to first win
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Rookie Jaden Ivey added 15 points in the Pistons' first win since opening night. Stephen Curry topped Golden State with 32 points and Jordan Poole had 30 points. Doncic recorded his sixth consecutive outing of at least 30 points after making 17 of 26 shots from the floor. The Spurs were up by 15 points heading into the fourth quarter before Minnesota pulled to within three early in the period. Keita Bates-Diop scored 18 points for San Antonio, while Tre Jones hit for 10 and Jakob Poeltl grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds.

☆ Climate inaction risks damaging Philippines growth - World Bank
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MANILA, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Extreme weather events and rising temperatures could see 13.6% of the Philippines' economic output lost by 2040, inflicting a heavy toll on the country's poorest if it does not address climate change, a World Bank report said on Tuesday. The report warned that temperatures in the Philippines will continue to rise and rainfall could become more intense due to climate change, putting at risk the country's ability to meet its development goals. "Without action, climate change will impose substantial economic and human costs, affecting the poorest households the most," said Ndiamé Diop, World Bank country director for the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Brunei at the launch of the report. Support for renewable energy, energy efficiency, sustainable transport, and for building smart cities, should be scaled up to mitigate the impact of climate change, the report said. "Adaptation must be a priority for the Philippines," Diop said, adding these measures could reduce the economic losses from climate change by around two-thirds.

☆ Mali threatens to defend against French sovereignty violations
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Its relations with Mali have soured since an August 2020 coup and it is withdrawing troops sent in 2013 to help fight the insurgency. France's representative denied the "defamatory" accusations, defended its intervention in Mali as fully transparent and said the country had never violated any airspace. Other European countries have ended their military involvement in Mali this year, often citing the junta's collaboration with Russian fighters. Islamist militants have since advanced further into eastern Mali, seizing territory and killing hundreds of civilians as thousands more fled. Mali has faced instability since 2012, when Islamist militants hijacked a Tuareg rebellion in the north.

Search resuls for: "Diop"

25 mentions found