Socar Trading Head Expects Oil to Hit $80 a Barrel This Year - Bloomberg

Socar Trading Head Expects Oil to Hit $80 a Barrel This Year - Bloomberg Oil prices will hit $80 a barrel this year as demand comes roaring back and producers won’t be able to immediately respond with sufficient supply, Socar Trading SA said, joining a chorus of bullish calls on the market.Hayal Ahmadzada, Socar’s chief trading officer, said the glut of excess oil stocks that built up in 2020 in response to the pandemic will be fully drawn down by the summer. At the same time, soaring prices for...
Tags: Travel, Bloomberg, Baku Azerbaijan, State Oil Company, Rupert Neil Bumfrey, Bloomberg Oil, Socar Trading Head Expects Oil, Socar Trading SA, Hayal Ahmadzada Socar, Ahmadzada, Azerbaijan Republic Geneva, Socar Trading

The (digital) road from competitive programming to Google SRE

Welcome to the latest edition of “My Path to Google,” where we talk to Googlers, interns and alumni about how they got to Google, what their roles are like and even some tips on how to prepare for interviews.Today’s post is all about Mohamed Yosri Ahmed, a Site Reliability Engineer at our Munich office. Yosri’s passion for coding competitions led him to Google -- and now he supports young programmers as a mentor in Google’s own series of coding competitions!So first off, what is “competitive pro...
Tags: Google, France, Munich, Portugal, Googlers, Cairo Egypt, Baku Azerbaijan, Cross, Ain Shams University, Site Reliability Engineering SRE, Life at Google, My Path to Google, Daphne Karpel, Student Programs, Google SRE, Mohamed Yosri Ahmed

Facebook’s Oversight Board announces first batch of cases, will consider matters of hate speech, nudity

Facebook’s Oversight Board, an independent body that reviews moderation decisions by the social media giant, has chosen six cases concerning hate speech by politicians, nudity, politico-religious speech, and “dangerous organisations”, as the first batch of cases it will review in the coming days. None of these cases concern India directly. The OSB was first proposed in November 2018, in response to several years of criticism faced by Facebook over its unsatisfactory content moderation activity. ...
Tags: Travel, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, News, France, China, Germany, India, US, United States, Malaysia, Brazil, Nazi, Hate Speech, Misinformation, Baku Azerbaijan

Facebook’s self-styled ‘oversight’ board selects first cases, most dealing with hate speech

A Facebook -funded body that the tech giant set up to distance itself from tricky and potentially reputation-damaging content moderation decisions has announced the first bundle of cases it will consider. In a press release on its website the Facebook Oversight Board (FOB) says it sifted through more than 20,000 submissions before settling on six cases — one of which was referred to it directly by Facebook. The six cases it’s chosen to start with are: Facebook submission: 2020-006-FB-FBR A c...
Tags: Travel, Social, Facebook, France, China, Germany, US, Eu, Netherlands, Brazil, Hate Speech, Board, Baku Azerbaijan, Baku, Eastern Standard Time, Joseph Goebbels

Azerbaijan fully reclaims lands around Nagorno-Karabakh

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Azerbaijan on Tuesday completed reclaiming territory ceded by Armenia under a Russia-brokered peace deal that...
Tags: Russia, Ap, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Baku Azerbaijan, Nagorno Karabakh

Armenia, Azerbaijan clashes resume over separatist Nagorno-Karabakh region

By AVET DEMOURIAN | Associated Press YEREVAN, Armenia — The fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh resumed Monday morning, with both sides accusing each other of launching attacks. Armenian military officials on Monday reported missile strikes hitting Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh. The region lies in Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since the end of a separatist war in ...
Tags: Facebook, News, Sport, World news, Turkey, Iran, Syria, Ap, Soccer, Nato, Moscow, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Associated Press, Brussels, Tehran

Melting Carpet

Creative optical illusion version of traditional decorative carpet looks to be melting onto the floor. “Doubts?” melting carpet made by conceptual artist Faig Ahmed and his team from Baku, Azerbaijan. “There are no more doubts in this carpet, destroying geometric intelligible boundaries of the patterns – overflowing they geal on the floor – this is the […]
Tags: Design, Inspiration, Baku Azerbaijan, Faig Ahmed

Restaurant Barbarestan – a Delicious Discovery in Tbilisi, Georgia

It happens to me a lot. I arrive in a new place with no plans and little knowledge of the country. I do this purposely. I want to see every country I visit with no expectations. I prefer to be surprised. Somehow, the universe always seems to lead me to the places I need to experience, and Tbilisi, Georgia, was no different. I arrived in the capital city after an 11-hour night train from Baku, Azerbaijan. After checking into my hotel, I got local currency from an ATM,... The post Restaurant Barba...
Tags: Travel, Food, Restaurants, Culture, Tbilisi, Europe Travel, Cultural Travel, Baku Azerbaijan, Tbilisi Georgia, Country of Georgia

Trump Didn’t ‘Send In the Troops.’ They Were Already There.

Police today can turn out with more weaponry than I had in 1992, as a Marine deployed to a burning Los Angeles. What does it mean to project this much force at home?
Tags: News, Gun Control, Police Brutality, Demonstrations, Black Lives Matter Movement, Police Reform, Protests and Riots, Misconduct and Shootings, United States Defense and Military Forces, Baku (Azerbaijan, George Floyd Protests (2020

London’s new skyscraper: The Scalpel

The London skyline is like a plastic surgery patient that just can’t decide what procedure it wants. After The Gherkin, The Shard, and The Cheese Grater, it hung its hopes on the Tulip building — a flower-shaped design ultimately rejected by the mayor for being an eyesore — and now there’s an edgy new skyscraper in town: The Scalpel. Sitting among the City of London’s skyscraper cluster, The Scalpel, designed by Architecture Studio Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF), is a 623-foot-tall, 38-story buildin...
Tags: Travel, London, Skyscraper, All, St Paul, Baku Azerbaijan, Dezeen, Lime Street, London Skyline, London Skyscraper, The Scalpel, Kohn Pedersen Fox KPF, Donatas Dabravolskas Shutterstock, Leadenhall, William Pedersen

Best architectural projects of 2019

New constructions, whether they be for practical use like apartment buildings and airports, or the home of art and cultural displays like museums, have the potential to be so striking that they can liven up a skyline, transform a city, and become symbols of creativity and innovation. In 2019, architects around the world have done just that by creating amazing structures that have already left their marks; some have focused on sustainability, others concentrated on an efficient use of space, ...
Tags: Travel, Europe, New York, France, China, New York City, Qatar, Architecture, Beijing, United Arab Emirates, Denmark, Norway, Thomas Heatherwick, Copenhagen, Abu Dhabi, Zaha Hadid

Two Weeks in the Caucasus: Travel Itinerary for Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan

If you were going to spend two weeks in the Caucasus, what’s the best itinerary? I recently visited the Caucasus for the first time: first Armenia, then Georgia, then Armenia. First off — the Caucasus is such an interesting place that you could spend months there without seeing all the points of interest. But most people don’t have months to spend here. If all you have is two weeks, you can definitely make a sizable dent in the region’s highlights. The Caucasus is home to incredible natura...
Tags: Asia, Europe, New York, Israel, US, Blog, Georgia, Ukraine, United States, Middle East, Ryanair, Switzerland, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Black Sea, Istanbul

Baku, Azerbaijan's best architecture

Bordered by Georgia , Armenia, Russia, Iran, and the Caspian Sea is Azerbaijan, a country most people can’t find on a map, nevermind know anything about its architectural styles. And because it is located in South Caucasus, a region of the world that incorrectly conjures little more than drab Soviet cities, nobody expects Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital city, to have an exciting skyline that could rival the likes of Beijing, Ryad, and London’s. Baku’s electric urban landscape started with its first...
Tags: Travel, London, Unesco, Korea, Azerbaijan, Zaha Hadid, All, Baku Azerbaijan, Old City, Baku, Caucasus, Lenin, SOCAR, State Oil Company, Azerbaijan Republic, Government House

Olympic BMX rider and 2015 Pan AM Games champion Tory Nyhaug retires

TORONTO — BMX racer Tory Nyhaug endured a string of broken bones and sacrificed his spleen for his sport.But the 27-year-old from Coquitlam, B.C., could not survive a concussion, announcing his retirement Monday. The 2015 Pan American gold medallist has been struggling with a concussion sustained last year at the world championships in Baku, Azerbaijan."Since then it’s been difficult to recover as I've dealt with post-concussion symptoms flaring up for a year and a half while training and t...
Tags: London, News, Toronto, Beijing, Manchester, Chula Vista, Baku Azerbaijan, Pan Am, The Canadian Press, Rio He, Tory Nyhaug, Nyhaug, Rio 2016 Nyhaug

What’s it like to travel Armenia today?

I feel a heaviness as I travel Armenia. It’s a tension, a sorrow, an awareness that permeates the air and drapes over the country like a blanket. The Armenian Genocide and its aftermath are never far from your thoughts. Is this the best way to encourage people to travel to Armenia, Kate? By starting with genocide?! Yeah. Honesty, I feel like it would be disingenuous to do anything else. Of course there’s so much more to Armenia than its traumatic history. So much natural beauty, so m...
Tags: New York, Obama, Congress, La, Senate, Germany, Russia, Kingdom, Los Angeles, Blog, Georgia, Turkey, Ukraine, Rome, Karen, Hungary

24 Reasons Why You Should Travel to Georgia in 2020

  Travel to Georgia For the past few years, I’ve toasted the New Year with a glass of champagne and said, “This will be the year that I finally travel to Georgia.” For around a decade, Georgia has been at the absolute top of my travel wish list, and dreams of mountain peaks and khachapuri swirled in my head. So what took me so long? I don’t know. I think I was waiting for the perfect opportunity. And this summer, while drinking wine at a bar in Trento, Italy, the perfect opportunity arose....
Tags: Google, Europe, Featured, Russia, Southeast Asia, US, Blog, Georgia, Ukraine, James Brown, Unesco, Prague, United States, Italy, Argentina, Armenia

AK Monthly Recap: September 2019

Sometimes a moment makes your month. That’s what happened in September. At Traverse in Trentino in June, the closing keynote included blogger Sassy Wyatt, who writes about travel and disability and is visually impaired. She pointed out that bloggers should be writing descriptions of their photos in the alt text field, because that’s what visually impaired people use to understand the photos. At that point I had been blogging for seventeen years, professionally for nine years, and had no clue t...
Tags: Europe, New York, London, Featured, Blog, Czech Republic, Prague, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Venice, Oklahoma, Kate, Jodi Picoult, Parma, Bologna

What’s it REALLY like to travel to Baku, Azerbaijan?

When I think back to my travels in Baku, Azerbaijan, one anecdote comes to mind. I’m driving through the highway as we speed past modern, silver buildings interspersed with sand-colored mosques and souks, set back against the arid landscape. My guide points out a cluster of buildings on one side of the highway. “See those buildings?” he tells me. “Our journalists live there. They get to live there for free.” I smile weakly and say, “Oh. For free. Cool.” Inside, I’m thinking, really? In exchang...
Tags: New York, Featured, Australia, France, US, Blog, Georgia, Turkey, Ukraine, Unesco, United States, Dubai, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Jfk, Doha

Sarri gets a winners’ medal, but may still leave Chelsea

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Maurizio Sarri can take the Europa League title to the bank. The Chelsea manager and ex-banker already had the most improbable rise from Tuscan amateur teams to soccer’s elite, but he had never before had a winners’ medal. That all changed with Wednesday’s 4-1 win over Arsenal in the Europa League […]
Tags: News, Sports, Chelsea, Arsenal, Europa League, Maurizio Sarri, Baku Azerbaijan, Sarri

UEFA tightens rules on Kosovo, but leaves loopholes

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — UEFA is tightening its rules to stop countries which don’t recognize Kosovo from excluding its national soccer team, but left some loopholes. “This policy obliges all other teams to accept to play against Kosovo national and club teams as the result of a draw, be it on their own territory or […]
Tags: News, Sports, Ap, Soccer, Nation, Uefa, Kosovo, Baku Azerbaijan

Arsenal faces Chelsea in Europa League final

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Arsenal and Chelsea are gearing up to play a London derby far from home in the Europa League final. Playing three time zones and 2,460 miles (4,000 kilometers) from London in Azerbaijan, the game offers Arsenal coach Unai Emery the chance to win a record fourth Europa League title. It could […]
Tags: London, News, Sports, Chelsea, Arsenal, Azerbaijan, Europa League, Baku Azerbaijan, Unai Emery

UEFA dropped the ball with Mkhitaryan situation for Europa League final

Arsenal midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan announced on Tuesday that he will not be traveling with his teammates for the UEFA Europa League final next week. ”Having considered all current options, we had to take the tough decision for me not to travel with the squad to the Europa League final,” explained Mkhitaryan. “It’s the kind of game that doesn’t come along very often and I admit, it hurts a lot to miss it.” Mkhitaryan, an Armenian international, will skip the trip to Baku, Azerbaijan because...
Tags: Sport, Soccer, Arsenal, Azerbaijan, Uefa, Europa League, UEFA Europa League, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, US TV, Baku Azerbaijan, Baku, Mkhitaryan, Unai Emery, Micki, Borussia Dortmund Following

UK: Formula 1 – First Practice Down The Drain - Squire Patton Boggs LLP

Formula 1 returned to the streets of Baku, Azerbaijan last weekend
Tags: UK, News, Baku Azerbaijan, Squire Patton Boggs LLP

Eden Hazard drops hint over Chelsea future

Leicester 0 – Chelsea 0 Chelsea’s Premier League season ended with a 0-0 draw at Leicester City on Sunday. As a result, Chelsea finished the league in third spot above Tottenham. Of course, Chelsea’s 2019-20 campaign isn’t over just yet. The Pensioners have qualified for their second cup final having lost the League Cup final to Man City back in February. On May 25, Chelsea take on Arsenal in the Europa League final in Baku, Azerbaijan. Does Eden Hazard have a Chelsea future? Maurizio Sarri t...
Tags: Sport, Soccer, Chelsea, Premier League, Real Madrid, Cardiff, PFA, Eden Hazard, Leicester, Stamford Bridge, Leicester City, Man City, Europa League, United, Paul Pogba, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

Azerbaijan indicates Mkhitaryan can play in Europa final

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry has indicated Arsenal midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan can play in the Europa League final in Baku despite tension between Azerbaijan and his native Armenia. Asked about Mkhitaryan, ministry spokeswoman Leyla Abdullayeva tells The Associated Press that “many major sports events have been hosted in Azerbaijan, and Armenian athletes have […]
Tags: News, Sports, Arsenal, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Associated Press, Europa, Europa League, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Baku Azerbaijan, Foreign Ministry, Baku, Mkhitaryan, Leyla Abdullayeva

Trump Dials Up the Pressure on Iran

The latest set of sanctions on Tehran could make a bad situation worse.
Tags: News, Obama, China, Iraq, India, Israel, Iran, Syria, Terrorism, Bolton, Tehran, Yemen, Lebanon, Defense Department, Hezbollah, New Yorker

F1 practice in Azerbaijan disrupted by loose drain cover

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — A loose drain cover disrupted the Azerbaijan Grand Prix’s first practice session, which had to be abandoned Friday after only two cars had set a time. George Russell was traveling at high speed when his Williams car hit the loose drain cover. The impact scattered fragments of the car’s floor across […]
Tags: News, Sports, Williams, Azerbaijan, Baku Azerbaijan, George Russell

Trump's 'business ties' to Iran's Revolutionary Guards reemerge, a day after he designated it a terror group

A day after Donald Trump designated Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) a terrorist organisation, reports are reemerging of the Trump Organization's alleged participation in a scheme that likely helped the IRGC launder money to fund its interests abroad.The US government made the unprecedented move to blacklist another country’s military because, Mr Trump said, the IRGC “actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft”. The designation impo...
Tags: News, US, Iran, Earth, Azerbaijan, Wikileaks, Donald Trump, Trump, Irgc, Baku Azerbaijan, Ivanka, Ivanka Trump, Kamal, Trump Organization, Trump International Hotel Tower, George Washington University Law School

Horwath HTL Industry Report: Baku, Azerbaijan

Gergely Bálint, of Horwath HTL Hungary has written the latest market report on Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan. Baku has more than its nine ‘climate zones’ and oil industry to boast about at the moment. Hotel development is booming as the market begins to appreciate the economic upside offered by tourism. Diversification of hotel products to attract more leisure travellers to the country, extends the booking period and minimises the reliance on corporate travel.
Tags: Travel, Hungary, Baku Azerbaijan, Baku, Azerbaijan Baku, Gergely Bálint

OPEC's Missing Meeting Shows Strain in Saudi-Russia Alliance - Bloomberg

OPEC's Missing Meeting Shows Strain in Saudi-Russia Alliance - Bloomberg:The partnership at the heart of the OPEC+ alliance showed further signs of strain after Russia pressured the Saudi-led group to delay a decision on the future of their production cuts.The unusual recommendation to cancel next month’s scheduled meeting means the group probably won’t decide whether to prolong its supply curbs until late June, just days before they expire.At talks in Baku, Azerbaijan on Monday, Russian Energy ...
Tags: Travel, Russia, Opec, Baku Azerbaijan, Khalid al Falih, Alexander Novak, Rupert Neil Bumfrey, Saudi Russia Alliance Bloomberg