brace for, brace yourself. dredge sth up, anti-fur, Busbie. Taiwan’s President Heads to the U.S., Bracing for Beijing’s Retaliation

Taiwan’s President Heads to the U.S., Bracing for Beijing’s Retaliation

President Tsai Ing-wen is expected to meet Speaker Kevin McCarthy next week, risking a show of force from China, which opposes any such exchanges.

The discovery that the virus had a human origin would give the coronavirus saga what it’s lacked: a villain.

BLOOMBERG.COM

Opinion | If Covid Did Escape From a Wuhan Lab, Brace Yourself

Citigroup's stock has plunged and it is mired in red ink -- but the worst may not be over for the banking giant led by Vikram S. Pandit.

As Mr. Pandit completes his first year as Citi's chief executive, the company is bracing for still more pain now that a recession is at hand, The New York Times's Eric Dash writes.

"If you look at their loss rate, it is almost inevitable that Citi is going to be asking the government for more money next year," Christopher Whalen, managing partner at Institutional Risk Analytics, told The Times.

Citi still needs to hand out pink slips to 9,100 workers to meet its previously announced goals, and bankers are bracing for much of the bad news to arrive early next week, The Times reported.

And while there are no formal plans for further job cuts, executives say it is possible that Citigroup could shed an additional 25 percent of its work force by the end of next year, The Times said.

Richard D. Parsons, one of the company's most outspoken directors, said Thursday that the board was fully behind Mr. Pandit and Winfried F. W. Bischoff, its executive chairman, as it braced for a difficult 2009.

Mr. Pandit, for his part, led a group of Citigroup executives in buying 1.3 million Citigroup shares as the stock tumbled on Thursday.




Midwest Floods Dredge Up Dispute
As residents of the Midwest brace for more flooding, a debate is intensifying as to whether development along the Mississippi helped cause the deluge. Officials predicted as many as 30 levees could overflow

Inside Europe | 06.09.2008 | 07:05

Buckingham Palace gears up for a very unusual changing of the guard!

Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: The changing of the guard Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace, the official London residence of the British Queen, is bracing itself for a rather unusual and quite literal, changing of the guard!

Anti-fur campaigners are demanding an end to the famous bearskin hats, or Busbies, worn by the Palace guards. The campaigners blame the headgear for the slaughter of scores of Canadian black bears every year.

brace
v.tr.

1. To furnish with a brace.
2. To support or hold steady with or as if with a brace; reinforce.
3. To prepare or position so as to be ready for impact or danger: Union members braced themselves for a confrontation with management.
4. To confront with questions or requests.
5. To increase the tension of.
6. To invigorate; stimulate: “The freshness of the September morning inspired and braced him” (Thomas Hardy).
7. Nautical. To turn (the yards of a ship) by the braces.

brace yourself (PREPARE) verb [R]
to prepare yourself physically or mentally for something unpleasant:
The passengers were told to brace themselves (= to press their bodies hard against something or hold them very stiff) for a crash landing.
She told me she had some bad news for me and I braced myself for a shock.

dredge sth up phrasal verb [M]
to talk about something bad or unpleasant that happened in the past:
The article dredged up details of her unhappy childhood.