Amid talks of more space travel, California has drafted a plan that would tax the state’s thriving rocket industry. The tax plan is still just a proposal, and the public can still have their say on the matter until June. Taxing By Mileage In an attempt to solidify California’s rocket industry, the state’s Franchise Tax Board has released a draft of their proposed tax plan for private […]
Volkswagen bought back hundreds of thousands of emissions-cheating cars. We just discovered what it has done with them all… As Bloomberg reports, the German automaker agreed last year to buy back about 500,000 diesels that it rigged to pass U.S. emissions tests if it can’t figure out a way to fix them. Except for a handful of 2015 models, VW dealers can’t sell the cars until […]
By John Ruwitch | SHANGHAI SHANGHAI Organisers barred journalists on Sunday from a publicly advertised event in Shanghai to attract Chinese investment in a U.S. real estate project linked to the family of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law in exchange for immigrant visas. The two-tower luxury apartment complex in New Jersey, One Journal Square, is being developed by KABR Group and the Kushner Companies, which until recently was […]
File Photo Spyware developer FlexiSpy planned to lure researchers to disclose vulnerabilities in its software through HackerOne. HackerOne had other ideas. Last month, the surveillance firm revealed plans on Twitter to transfer its bug bounty program to HackerOne. The bug bounty program, created in the “interest of transparency,” would have offered researchers between $100 and $5000 to privately disclose bugs to the company. FlexiSpy said that the […]
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, […]
Uber is once again potentially in hot water with US regulators following the disclosure of a program used to track and avoid government officials. The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has launched a criminal investigation into Uber concerning the Greyball program, software which helped drivers avoid local authorities while remaining on the road. Greyball, disclosed in March by the New York Times, was a secretive system used […]
Good morning. Here’s our morning roundup of all the media news you need to know. Want to get this briefing in your inbox every morning? Subscribe here. The image of power was simple: Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump walking off Marine One Thursday, hand-in-hand, and boarding Air Force One for a short trek to New York City with Kushner’s father-in-law. Yes, Jared Kushner, trusted power broker, to […]
Representatives from the Kushner family descended upon the Ritz Carlton in Beijing to pitch wealthy Chinese the EB-5 visa program aka crony capitalism. Nicole Kushner, Jared’s sister, was alleged to be in attendance. The pitch was “Invest early, and you will invest under the old rules,” according to the Washington Post. The event, which was closed to foreign press, was hosted by the Chinese company Qiaowai — who […]
07 May 2017 Doha, Qatar – Qatar Foundation (QF), in partnership with QSports, has officially announced its Ramadan sports initiative, ‘QF Ramadan Sports 2017’, which is set to kick off on May 28. The initiative boasts 11 different competitions, with men’s tournaments including super sixes cricket, basketball, indoor futsal, Ramadan Cricket Cup T-12 (MRE), tennis – singles and doubles, outdoor 7-a-side football, volleyball, and squash, which will […]
Wall Street people underestimated how nasty and political the struggle over the post-Brexit fate of European clearing houses would become. This week the European Commission offered threats to London-based clearing houses and inducements for their customers to move their trade to the EU. €650bn Value of euro-denominated trades that clear through London each business day UK negotiators in turn demand that euro derivatives clearing should stay in […]
By Ann Saphir | PALO ALTO PALO ALTO San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams on Saturday reiterated his view that the U.S. central bank should begin trimming its massive balance sheet later this year, in part so the Fed has more tools at the ready when the next recession hits. He was the fourth Fed official in two days to suggest the Fed may need […]
Director Shubhashish Bhutiani’s critically-acclaimed film Hotel Salvation is a bittersweet comedy-drama about of a dying father’s cross-country trip with his son to a kind of sacred hospice in India where the elderly can have their sins absolved in their final days. It had its regional premiere at the Dubai International Film Festival in December, but if you missed it there is another chance to catch it, courtesy […]
An unequivocally positive side-effect of all the “fake news” headlines has been a growing interest among social scientists to research the impact of fact-checking. In one of the most recent studies (here in English), economists at the Paris School of Economics and Sciences Po found that providing factual information on immigration improved French voters’ understanding but didn’t reduce their likelihood to vote for the fact-checked politician. This […]
Published May 6, 2017, 10:00 PM By Dr. Jun Ynares, M.D. Dr. Jun Ynares, M.D. “So, would you favor the revival of mandatory ROTC?” This was the question asked me by a fellow local government official recently. He attended the closing ceremonies of the 2017 Palarong Pambansa held in San Jose, Antique, and had listened to the speech which President Duterte delivered on that occasion. My fellow […]
DUBAI // Educators discussed new ways to make learning Arabic fun at an event hosted by the Dubai private schools regulator on Saturday. More than 250 educators from at least 90 schools met at Jebel Ali School in Dubai for the Living Arabic event hosted by the Knowledge and Human Development Authority. The attendees discussed ideas focused on reading, listening and conversation skills for native and non-native […]
By Lawrence Delevingne | NEW YORK NEW YORK Paul Singer’s hedge fund firm Elliott Management Corp raised more than $5 billion in about 24 hours this week, citing a major potential investment opportunity at a time when Singer said financial markets could face a disruption after being distorted by years of economic stimulus. Singer, in an email to investors on Wednesday announcing the offering of up to […]
DUBAI // Almost 1,000 animals at Dubai Zoo will be relocated to the new Dubai Safari Park, which 4,000 creatures will call home when it opens. The 119-hectare park is tentatively due to open in late 2017 in Al Warqa 5. It will replace Dubai Zoo and offer animals a better quality of life. Timothy Husband, the park’s technical director, said that some of the animals will […]
The campaign team of French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron said late on Friday night that it had been the victim of a “massive and co-ordinated” hacking operation. Nine gigabytes of data were posted online to Pastebin, a document-sharing site that allows anonymous posting, Reuters reported. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for posting the data. Voters are preparing to go to the polls on Sunday […]
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 […]
By Dan Levine and Joseph Menn The city of Portland, Oregon plans to subpoena Uber Technologies Inc to force it to disclose software that helped its drivers evade local transportation regulators, a city official said on Friday. Uber has acknowledged using the software, known as Greyball, to circumvent government officials who were trying to clamp down on Uber in areas where its service had not yet been […]
NASA engineers have come up with a highly creative solution to improving the functionality and durability of materials used in space. It’s called “space fabric,” and it’s not only fashionable but also extremely versatile — soon to be an interstellar must-have. Shielding spacecraft from the harshness of deep space and protecting astronauts in their exploratory missions on alien planets has just gotten a lot easier thanks to this […]
Thailand has bought the first of three submarines from China in the strongest signal yet the military-ruled country is reducing reliance on its long-time ally, the United States. A Thai navy admiral signed an agreement for the $US393 million ($530 million) Yuan-class diesel vessel in Beijing even though Thailand’s state audit office is still investigating the purchase. Prayuth Chan-Ocha, Thailand’s Prime Minister. Photo: Getty Images Thailand’s cabinet, dominated by military officers who seized power […]
By Lucia Mutikani | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. job growth rebounded sharply in April and the unemployment rate dropped to 4.4 percent, near a 10-year low, pointing to a tightening labor market that likely seals the case for an interest rate increase next month despite moderate wage growth. Nonfarm payrolls surged by 211,000 jobs last month after a paltry gain of 79,000 in March, the Labor Department said […]
Your daily guide to community and cultural activities across the Emirates for May 6, 2017, including performances, festivals, art exhibitions, film screenings, health and fitness events, talks, classes, workshops and family fun. Ellen Fortini rounds up 10 things to do today in the UAE. newslide Abu Dhabi Workshop Sign up now to attend a media workshop with DJ Eric San, popularly known as Kid Koala. During the […]
