Chinese linguist Zhou Youguang, considered the father of the Pinyin system used to represent the pronunciation of Chinese characters and who was an outspoken critic of the ruling Communist party, has died in Beijing at the age of 111. Born to a wealthy family in 1906 when a Qing Dynasty emperor was on the throne, Zhou’s life spanned China’s tumultuous and often tragic twentieth century. He witnessed […]
Investors in Fiat, the carmaker under investigation for violating emissions laws, have been accused of ignoring clear signs of corporate governance failings at the Italian-US business. Fiat Chrysler’s share price fell 16 per cent on Thursday immediately after the US environmental watchdog warned the company could face a fine of up to $4.6bn. It is accused of breaking emissions laws in 104,000 diesel vehicles. The US regulator […]
iStockphoto Car makers need to improve the security of today’s connected cars before the arrival of self-driving cars, according to Europe’s cyber security agency. “Over the last few years, there have been many publications on attacks against smart cars, many of which have resulted in reputational damage for car manufacturers. The impact of attacks on a smart car has far-reaching consequences in terms of safety, while the […]
SpaceX put its first rocket back into space on Saturday since a spectacular launch pad explosion halted operations more than four months ago at the private US space company founded by billionaire Elon Musk. The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force base on the southern California coast, taking 10 one-ton satellites into space for communications company Iridium. Investigators were left scratching their heads for […]
Leo Lintang, Getty Images/iStockphoto Imagine waking up one morning to discover your email address and current password have been plastered onto a billboard on the side of a major highway. It’s a bit improbable, I know, but play along. For some of you, that would be the end. Anyone could paw through your email history, steal personal identifying information, run password resets for other sites, and generally […]
Donald Trump has attacked civil rights icon John Lewis on the weekend that the US celebrates the life of Martin Luther King Jr, sparking another controversy for the president-elect just days before he is due to take office. Mr Trump took to Twitter to criticise Mr Lewis after the long-serving Democratic congressman spoke out against Jeff Sessions, Mr Trump’s nominee for attorney-general and alleged that he did […]
A border tax in the US could upend the export-based economic model that has brought prosperity to millions of people in Asia, say analysts, as the region wakes up to reforms proposed by Republicans in Congress. Although most attention is still focused on whether president-elect Donald Trump will slap tariffs on China or target companies that move production offshore, proposals for a US tax regime that penalises […]
Not only is Kim Kardashian one of the most beautiful women in the world, she is one of the most high-profile too. This month, she returned to social media for the first time since she was robbed at gunpoint in Paris on October 3. With the eyes of the world’s media on her, and determined to make a fresh start after a traumatic year, Kardashian made her […]
Wells Fargo has laid down plans to close at least 400 branches over the next two years as part of a push to cut costs as the US bank tries to recover from the scandal over sham accounts. The San Francisco-based lender, which operates more than 6,000 branches across the country, is accelerating closures as it aims to reduce about $2bn in expenses by the end of […]
Fact-checkers had a big year in 2016; will 2017 prove as eventful? Below are seven predictions of what the year ahead holds in store for fact-checking. As with the 2016 predictions, I promise to return to these when the year is over and evaluate how they fared. (You can check out last year’s annotated predictions here). 1. Fact-checkers will seek lessons from cognitive science Late last year, […]
Moody’s has agreed to pay $864m to settle allegations that it inflated the credit ratings of subprime mortgage bonds that contributed to the 2008 financial crisis, the Department of Justice said on Friday. The settlement with the rating agency includes a $437.5m federal civil penalty to the US government — the second-largest payment of this type ever by a rating agency — and ends an investigation carried […]
Investors have returned to the world of debt in a cooling of the Trumpflation trade that pummelled bond markets and propelled equities to record highs after the US election. The shift, which has included fresh inflows to municipal, Treasury and emerging market bond funds over the past week, dovetails with a near month-long rally in haven US Treasuries and fatigue in benchmark stock indices. Municipal funds, which […]
DAMASCUS: The Syrian regime said on Friday that Israeli missile strikes caused a series of explosions at an air base outside Damascus before dawn.The airport southwest of the capital is a major strategic air base used mainly by Syrian elite Republican Guards and had been a base used to fire rockets at former opposition-held areas in the suburbs of Damascus. State television did not give any further […]
“We open a new hotel every 36 hours,” Sébastien Bazin remarks, after outlining the impressive portfolio of French hospitality chain AccorHotels, with 4,100 hotels spread across 95 countries and employing 240,000 people. The significant sum includes properties gained through the recent acquisition of FRHI, a hotel management company formerly owned by Qatar Investment Authority, billionaire Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s private investment arm Kingdom Holding and Oxford […]
Michael Lynton is stepping down as chief executive of Sony Entertainment to become chairman of Snap, the owner of messaging start-up Snapchat that is heading towards an initial public offering this year with a likely valuation of about $25bn. Mr Lynton has had a long friendship with Evan Spiegel, Snapchat’s founder, and was also an early investor in the company. “I have been involved with Evan and […]
Rainfall records are being broken in the San Francisco Bay Area: six inches since the start of the year, the most since 1982. Local drivers react by randomly deploying wipers, brakes and lights; it is no surprise that autonomous cars are being developed here. Other Silicon Valley records look equally hazardous. The technology-dominated Nasdaq Composite index has set further highs this week and stands more than 10 […]
There is a reason Rolls-Royce Motors appointed its youngest-ever chief executive in 2010. “I don’t want to say the brand would die, but the brand would never have had the success it has had over the last couple of years if we hadn’t rejuvenated it,” CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös boasts. He is probably right. Until a couple of years ago, the English automobile brand was predominantly known as […]
Citadel Securities, one of the largest traders on the US equity market, has agreed to pay $22.6m with US markets regulators to settle charges it misled customers over the prices they were getting for some of their deals. The Securities and Exchange Commission said on Friday that two of the algorithms Citadel used to execute orders on behalf of retail investors had not sought to obtain the […]
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. A Detroit cop who used Facebook to refer to city residents as “garbage” and came pretty close to bragging about police brutality has retired, the city’s police chief announced Thursday. And at the heart of it all is a single […]
A trading surge powered by Donald Trump’s victory has helped two of the three biggest US banks boost quarterly profits, fuelling hopes Wall Street can extend its post-election resurgence. JPMorgan Chase’s trading business, the largest in the world by revenues, produced its best ever fourth-quarter. Net income jumped 96 per cent from a year earlier to $3.43bn. At Bank of America’s global markets business, net income soared […]
Deir al-Zour, an oil-rich province that borders Iraq, is largely under Islamic State control and has been the focus of American-led airstrikes and other military action. Continue reading the main story Since early 2015, the jihadists have besieged the provincial capital, also called Deir al-Zour, where about 200,000 people live. The Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, controls roughly half of the city, while the […]
Theresa May, the UK prime minister, bookended a volatile week for sterling, prompting a sharp rise in the cost of hedging against falls in the pound as she prepares to set out more information about her Brexit negotiating strategy. The pound rallied against the dollar on Friday, at one stage rising 0.6 per cent to regain the $1.22 mark. But traders are positioned for sterling to fall, […]
BlackRock says it will raise its quarterly dividend after reporting the largest net inflows of new client money in its history in 2016, despite a 5 per cent fall in net income for the year. Reporting its fourth quarter and full-year results, the world’s largest asset manager said that it took in total net inflow of $202bn in 2016, as its total assets under management rose by […]
Fragile market conditions, poorly controlled algorithms and inexperienced staff all contributed to last October’s flash crash in sterling, global policymakers have concluded, with the Bank for International Settlements urging banks and other market participants to learn from their mistakes. The BIS — the central bank for central banks — said on Friday that no single event was responsible for the extraordinary 9 per cent plunge in the […]
