The conventional wisdom says that the days of the mainframe are numbered, but it just might be that a new generation of apps will breathe new life into it. A state-of-the-mainframe survey by Syncsort shows that the mainframe market as ever is experiencing some shrinkage, but also that there are some grounds for optimism. Syncsort has been working on mainframes since 1968 and has customers in more […]
Two Saudis were among a mainly Qatari hunting party freed after a 16-month hostage ordeal in Iraq, Saudi media reported on Saturday. The 26 hunters, initially believed to all be Qataris, were flown to Doha on Friday after being handed over to Iraqi authorities. Jeddah-based newspaper Okaz named the two Saudis as Salem bin Abdulhadi al-Merri and Mohammed Abdullah al-Merri and said they were expected to be […]
Data-driven analytics applications are eating the world and transforming every domain. But the world is also being eaten up in a different way by several non-sustainable practices. On Earth Day, we look at what we know about the relation between big data and the environment: how big data is used to measure sustainability and inform action, and what is the impact they have on the environment as […]
Malaysia and Abu Dhabi have reached agreement on a partial debt settlement for embattled government fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), the Straits Times reported, citing financial executives it didn’t identify. Under a deal that could be signed as soon as Friday, Malaysia would pay Abu Dhabi $1.2 billion before the end of this year and negotiate on a further $3.5 billion, the Singapore-based paper said. A proposed […]
NEW YORK United Continental Holdings Inc (UAL.N) said on Friday Chief Executive Oscar Munoz will not become chairman in 2018, under an amendment to his employment agreement approved after an uproar over the treatment of a passenger. In a reversal of his earlier employment agreement, Munoz has opted to leave “future determinations related to the Chairman position to the discretion of the Board,” United said in a […]
By Ian Simpson | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. scientists will stage an unprecedented protest on Saturday, a March for Science provoked by steep cuts President Donald Trump has proposed for science and research budgets, and growing disregard for evidence-based knowledge. The march in Washington, timed to coincide with the Earth Day environmental event, will put Trump’s questioning of climate change and proposed cuts to federal science programs at […]
21 April 2017 Total has reinforced its ongoing commitment to research and development (R&D) at Heriot-Watt University after the energy company signed a five-year partnership agreement with the University’s Institute of Petroleum Engineering. Worth a minimum of £2.5m, the agreement follows over two decades of research partnership and recognises the world-class research being undertaken at the University which has a campus in Dubai. It will cover global […]
Oil producers are moving closer towards agreement on extending the Opec-led deal to limit output, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said on Thursday, as the cartel battles excess stockpiles and a resurgent US shale industry that have weighed on prices. Khalid al-Falih said the deal could be run for another three to six months beyond the end of June. Under the terms of the existing accord, Opec members […]
SYDNEY U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said on Saturday the United States would honour a controversial refugee deal with Australia, under which the United States would resettle 1,250 asylum seekers, a deal President Donald Trump had described as “dumb”. Pence told a joint news conference with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in Sydney that the deal would be subject to vetting, and that honouring it “doesn’t mean […]
DETROIT A federal judge in Detroit on Friday sentenced Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) to three years’ probation and independent oversight for the German automaker’s diesel emissions scandal as part of a $4.3 billion settlement announced in January. The plea agreement called for “organization probation” in which the company would be overseen by an independent monitor. The sentencing was one of the last major hurdles to VW moving past […]
By Lindsay Dunsmuir | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The United States has strongly signalled it will continue to support Ukraine, Finance Minister Oleksandr Danylyuk said on Friday, adding that the war-torn country had a “good, pragmatic” relationship with Washington. Ukraine has previously expressed some nervousness about the possibility the Trump administration might try to cut a deal with Russia over Crimea and the eastern part of Ukraine that has […]
MOSCOW Russian state news organisation Rossiya Segodnya said on Friday it objected to a Reuters article it said had falsely claimed that Kremlin-backed media had tried to influence the 2016 U.S. election. A Reuters spokesperson said the news agency stood by the story which reported exclusively on April 19 that a Russian government think tank controlled by Vladimir Putin had developed a plan to swing the election […]
A Qatari hunting party kidnapped in southern Iraq in 2015 has been freed and was being handed over to a Qatari delegation in Baghdad on Friday, a senior interior ministry official told AFP. Sources close to the negotiations said their release was part of a far-reaching regional deal involving the release of prisoners and the evacuation of civilians in neighbouring Syria. “The interior ministry has received the […]
United Continental chief executive Oscar Munoz will not automatically assume the role of chairman in 2018 as previously planned, as the airline group also introduced plans to more directly link employee bonuses to customer experience. The moves come less than a fortnight after the company became the centre of a storm over the forcible removal of a passenger from a crowded United flight, as well as a […]
After a surly first conversation between the two leaders in January that rattled the United States and Australia’s long-standing alliance, Pence will take a more amiable approach and try to focus on cooperation on trade, defence and more. Trump reportedly exploded and cut short the call when he was told about a deal to move some refugees from Australia to America. That left some in Australia questioning […]
TEL AVIV U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Friday that Syria had dispersed its warplanes in recent days and that it retained chemical weapons, an issue he said would have to be taken up diplomatically. The United States launched dozens of missiles earlier this month against a Syrian air base in response to a chemical attack that killed 90 people, including 30 children. It says the […]
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP has a lost client because of its work for another client: President Donald Trump. Wallace Global Fund, a left-leaning private foundation, has terminated its relationship with Morgan Lewis as a protest against Mr. Trump and the firm’s handling of his business conflicts. The fund’s decision was “out of profound disagreement […] (via WSJ)
Although Google is processing more requests, it’s also producing data for a smaller share of them. Image: Google Government requests for Google user data in the second half of 2016 were the highest since the firm first reported the figures in 2009. As Google notes in its latest Transparency Report, it received 45,549 government requests for user data in the second half of 2016, of which about […]
The construction of Asia-Pacific fibre infrastructure company Superloop’s Indigo subsea cable system has reached a contractually binding status following Alcatel Submarine Networks entering a system supply agreement. The agreement makes the submarine cable system supply and construction binding for all parties, as well as the process of bringing it into operation. The contract was executed between Alcatel Submarine Networks and the Indigo consortium parties including Superloop and […]
By Chad Bray A federal judge said he needs more time to consider a $602 million settlement by hedge-fund firm SAC Capital Advisors LP to resolve allegations related to what federal authorities have called the most lucrative insider-trading scheme ever. The civil settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission is one of two such agreements reached earlier this month by SAC, one of the nation’s most successful […]
The US has set the stage for a global showdown over steel, launching a national security investigation that could lead to sweeping tariffs on steel imports in what would be the first significant act of economic protectionism by President Donald Trump. The decision to use a 1962 law allowing the US government to limit imports that threaten its security readiness is intended to deliver on Mr Trump’s […]
Following years of acrimony between OPEC and the hedge fund community, which the cartel dismissed simply as “speculators”, things suddenly changed in 2016 when the two groups got so close, there were outright reports of collusion between the two on various occasions. We documented this last month in “Why OPEC Is Colluding With Hedge Funds.” However, as Reuters’ energy analyst John Kemp pointed out on twitter this […]
Wall Street still exudes widespread optimism that 2017 will provide another year of solid if unspectacular economic growth and only gentle interest rate rises. With the S&P 500 up over 4.5 per cent for the year, here is a series of charts that will hearten investors of a more bearish persuasion. While there are good reasons why each chart should not be taken too seriously, together they […]
Oil prices levelled off on Thursday after they dropped more than $2 a barrel following publication of data by the US energy department showing a rise in American gasoline stockpiles for the first time since February. US benchmark West Texas Intermediate edged 14 cents higher to $50.58 a barrel in early European trading while the global Brent benchmark ticked 17 cents higher to $53.10 a barrel. The […]
