Bitcoin is now up for 16 of the last 18 days, soaring over 50% in the last month and up almost 90% in 2017 – making its the year’s best performing currency. There appears to be no specitic catalyst for today’s move as the surge in Japanese interest (as we detailed here) and news that Russia is considering, like Japan just did, to allow cryptocurrencies as a […]
Sign up to receive FirstFT by email here Days after Donald Trump was elected, President Barack Obama warned his successor against hiring former general Michael Flynn as his security adviser. Mr Trump ignored the advice and Mr Flynn resigned after 17 days on the job amid the growing investigation of the Trump team’s ties to Russia. This is just one of the revelations to emerge following a Senate […]
ABU DHABI // A new pier, arena and waterfront promenade with residential complexes and restaurants are part of a Dh12 billion development plan for Yas Island. Announced on Monday, the plan for the 14 million square foot area on the southern part of the island, near Yas Plaza and Yas Beach, includes the new home for twofour54, the media industry’s free zone that is currently located near […]
From February to April this year, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover probed into four sites near a linear dune on the Red Planet to compare the samples of dark sand taken here to those that was found in 2015 and 2016 when it investigated the crescent-shaped dunes. Dark Sand From Mars’s Linear Sand Dune The newly taken samples from the linear sand dune, which is located uphill of Mount […]
By Noah Barkin and Leigh Thomas | BERLIN/PARIS BERLIN/PARIS After a decade of slow growth, rising unemployment and dwindling competitiveness, France elected a president on Sunday who says he has a plan to pull the country out of its economic malaise. Emmanuel Macron, a former investment banker who quit the government of Francois Hollande twice out of frustration with the slow pace of reforms, is promising […]
In a week that started with big oil and US shale producers trumpeting their ability to thrive in a world of $50 a barrel crude, the market had a very quick response: let’s see if you can do it at $45. A brutal sell-off across commodity markets this week has quickly taken the shine off strong first-quarter results that would otherwise have been viewed as a triumph […]
Starting December 2015, the Internet Society Asia-Pacific (ISOC APAC) Bureau in collaboration with local stakeholders including government, industry and the civil society, has led a series of endeavours to help further digital accessibility in Pakistan. Building on the success of our work in Pakistan, and in an effort to replicate the learnings in other parts of the Asia-Pacific, we recently held a workshop on digital accessibility in Colombo, […]
SEOUL/WASHINGTON North Korea on Friday accused the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and South Korea’s intelligence service of a failed plot to assassinate its leader Kim Jong Un with a biochemical bomb at a military parade in Pyongyang. North Korea has a history of accusing the United States and South Korea of planning preemptive military attacks and to target its leaders, but analysts said it could be the […]
ENEC completes handover of Unit 1 systems to KHNP for commissioning, marking end of initial construction activities for the first of four units of the Barakah Project KHNP will lead the commissioning work of the first UAE-based APR-1400, as part of the scope of the 2009 Prime Contract Federal regulatory approval from FANR, in addition to international nuclear assessments from IAEA and WANO, will be […]
It’s been two years since rumors about an “Apple car” first emerged. Not surprisingly, the notoriously secretive company hasn’t divulged any details about its plans. But if a car is on the horizon, Cupertino can’t stay quiet for too long. You can hide a smartphone in a lab, but it’s difficult to not have a public presence when developing a vehicle, which requires road testing, typically in […]
By Dan Whitcomb | LOS ANGELES LOS ANGELES Family members of three victims of the December 2015 shooting rampage in San Bernardino, California, have sued Facebook, Google and Twitter, claiming that the tech giants permitted Islamic State to flourish on social media. The plaintiffs assert that by allowing Islamic State militants to spread propaganda freely on social media, the three companies provided “material support” to the group […]
A synthetic, soft tissue retina developed by an Oxford University student could offer fresh hope to visually impaired people. Until now, all artificial retinal research has used only rigid, hard materials. The new research, by Vanessa Restrepo-Schild, a 24 year old Dphil student and researcher at the Oxford University, Department of Chemistry, is the first to successfully use biological, synthetic tissues, developed in a laboratory environment. The […]
ABB string inverters deliver power for the residents of Dubai’s first all-electric city. 04 May 2017 Dubai’s first city to be powered completely by solar energy relies on ABB string inverters to harness the power of the sun for residents. Inverters convert the direct current (DC) output from the panels in to the alternating current (AC) needed in homes. ABB has supplied 400 string inverters to […]
Hilton Hotels & Resorts has signed to open a $66 million hotel and residences in Bahrain, the US-listed hospitality firm said on Tuesday. The 210-room Hilton Bahrain Bay Hotel & Residences will be located at The Avenues in Manama – a new retail and leisure destination scheduled to open later this year. The company signed an agrement with landowner King Faisal Corniche Development (KFCD) and Mabanee to […]
The Follow up Committee of the Initiatives of the UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan has approved a number of projects totalling AED410 million ($111.6 million). The committee, chaired by Ahmed Juma Al Zaabi, Deputy Minister of Presidential Affairs, approved the first phase of a project which will see a road built between Wadi Al-Qor and another linking the Al-Hubab roundabout and Nizwa Road for […]
Paper-based plasma generators — consisting of laminated assemblies of honeycomb-patterned, metallized paper — are capable of sanitizing surfaces with 10 seconds of treatment. These devices are also customizable into varied planar geometries and bendable/mechanically flexible to conform to curved surfaces. Credit: Jingjin Xie Imagine wearing clothes with layers of paper that protect you from dangerous bacteria. A Rutgers-led team has invented an inexpensive, effective way to kill […]
Mr. Abbas was scheduled to meet with Mr. Trump in Washington on Wednesday as the sole representative of the Palestinian people. He has sought in recent weeks to rein in Hamas, cutting salaries and refusing to pay for electricity, in a bid to undermine the group’s authority. Gazans now have only a few hours of power a day. Continue reading the main story “Whether it’s a coincidence […]
Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 01 May 2017 The AACE International Conference and Exhibition 2017 under the theme protecting capital investment through project cost control and risk management was inaugurated today and attended by 40 distinguished speakers and 500 delegates from across the region and different countries. The conference promotes the best practices in the field of cost and risk management. An exhibition was organized in conjunction with […]
UAE-based Azizi Developments has said it has submitted its concept designs to Meydan for its upcoming low to mid-rise residential and retail projects ahead of schedule. The developer, which announced the purchase of 186 plots within Meydan in Dubai in February, said in a statement that in less than a month, the concept designs and detailed plans for phase 1, have been completed. The proposal includes 76 […]
‘Burdensome new regulatory regime’ During the most recent fiscal year, the government entered into or modified contracts with nearly 70,000 companies or their subsidiaries to deliver hundreds of thousands of distinct goods and services. To figure out which companies to hire, agencies begin by posting solicitations, usually on FedBizOpps.gov, where registered contractors can sift through opportunities. When an agency puts out a solicitation, dozens of companies might […]
A new water bottling facility in Dubai will feature a 1km-long monorail to transport goods, it has been announced. Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, managing director and CEO of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), led the ground-breaking of Mai Dubai’s new expansion project in Yalayis off Al Qudra Road in Dubai. The project consists of two phases that will be completed by mid-2018 and will more than […]
DUBAI // A Dh800 million roads project to improve traffic flow in an area of Dubai has been endorsed by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of the emirate. Sheikh Mohammed directed the authority to immediately start road construction projects he endorsed “to cope with the upswing and demographic expansion of Dubai”, said Mattar Al Tayer, RTA director general. The first phase of the project […]
European leaders are warning Theresa May over her “completely unreal” expectations of a swift trade deal, as they gathered in Brussels to agree a tough opening stance on Brexit talks. Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, briefed an EU summit on Saturday on a recent dinner where the British prime minister said any Brexit exit payment would only pass before 2019 if accompanied by a full trade […]
Say you’re a gaming company that released a brand-new console, a throwback to one of your old hits. Suppose it became an instant rousing hit to the point where a lot of people went out of their way to snag one from any store that had it. This is great, right? People actually want your product, a demand which you had not expected from the get-go. What […]
