Europe’s top court has ruled that a key EU-Singapore agreement requires backing by all EU member states — but only for a narrow set of issues — in a decision that could chart the way for a post-Brexit trade accord with the UK. The European Court of Justice ruled that EU member states must sign off on specific areas related to investment in the Singapore trade deal. […]
“What killed the dinosaurs?” is an enduring question that has plagued grade school students and seasoned scientists alike. We’ve long known that the asteroid that created the Chicxulub crater in Mexico was linked to the demise of everyone’s favorite giant lizards, but the details have been a bit sketchy. Now, a team of scientists have uncovered evidence that lends credence to the notion that the dinosaurs were […]
Vodafone redials its Indian impairment numbers. FT Opening Quote, with commentary by Matthew Vincent, is your early Square Mile briefing. You can sign up for the full newsletter here. Hailing from the country that gave India cricket, Victorian railway architecture and a penchant for bureaucracy, Vodafone might have expected a little goodwill on the subcontinent. Instead, India has given the British mobile phone operator a price war, […]
By Colin Packham | SYDNEY SYDNEY Papua New Guinea’s decision to relocate hundreds of men held in an Australian-run detention centre to a nearby town soon exposes them to violence and inadequate medical care, asylum seekers and human rights groups said on Tuesday. Papua New Guinea immigration officials told asylum seekers on Monday that an area of the controversial Manus Island camp north of the PNG mainland […]
Hazy conditions with some cloud is expected across the UAE during the forthcoming days with a slight increase in temperatures starting from Wednesday. The National Centre for Meteorology and Seismology (NCMS) said convective clouds will develop over eastern and mountainous areas by this afternoon, with a chance of rain at times. Temperatures will range between 27°C and 39°C in Abu Dhabi and 29°C and 38°C in Dubai. […]
By Ann Saphir | SAN FRANCISCO SAN FRANCISCO Ramin Forouzandeh had applied to 13 PhD economics programs in the United States, but after President Donald Trump signed his first travel ban in January, the 25-year-old Iranian turned to Canada for other options. He said he had focused on U.S. schools because they hosted most of the world’s top 20 economics programs. “Before the travel ban, I never […]
SHANGHAI Air pollution in a key Chinese region surrounding Beijing worsened in the first four months of this year, despite tough new campaigns to enforce green regulations and punish offenders, official data published on Tuesday showed. In the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, average concentrations of small breathable particles known as PM2.5 rose nearly 20 percent year-on-year to 85 micrograms per cubic meter from January to April, said the Ministry […]
By Dustin Volz and Jim Finkle | WASHINGTON/TORONTO WASHINGTON/TORONTO Cyber security researchers have found technical evidence they said could link North Korea with the global WannaCry “ransomware” cyber attack that has infected more than 300,000 computers in 150 countries since Friday. Symantec (SYMC.O) and Kaspersky Lab said on Monday that some code in an earlier version of the WannaCry software had also appeared in programs used by […]
By David Shepardson and Nick Carey | WASHINGTON/DETROIT WASHINGTON/DETROIT Ford Motor Co (F.N) plans to shrink its salaried workforce in North America and Asia by about 10 percent as it works to boost profits and its sliding stock price, a source familiar with the plan told Reuters on Monday. A person briefed on the plan said Ford plans to offer generous early retirement incentives to reduce its […]
Although voice-activated platforms like Alexa will continue to grow and be important, it is my sense that AR is really the platform to watch. As I’ve discussed before, augmented reality has the potential to become the Next Big Thing. Voice-activated systems like Alexa are nice, but they have their limits. We’ve seen AR take off in apps like Snapchat and Pokemon Go, but what if a major […]
By Guy Faulconbridge and Dustin Volz | LONDON/WASHINGTON LONDON/WASHINGTON The global WannaCry “ransomware” cyber attack spread more slowly on Monday with no major infections reported, as attention shifted to investment and government policy implications of lax cyber security. There were 213,000 infected machines in 112 countries as of 1000 GMT on Monday, according to Czech security firm Avast, making it one of the largest coordinated attacks to […]
The rumored Moto Z2 Force and Moto Z2 Play just leaked in a new press render that gives a good look at the smartphone’s purported design, front and back. Motorola is expected to unveil its new line of smartphones soon enough and leaks hint at an exciting mix of specs, features, and aesthetics. The latest leak now offers a good glimpse of the purported Moto Z2 Force […]
As the UAE Pavilion was readied for the opening of the Venice Biennale, paper aeroplanes were strewn across a brick floor with yellow markings. To the untrained eye, they might have looked like the result of some celebratory fun and games from the young members of staff who had just finished the week-long installation work at the Sale d’Armi (Weapons Room) in the Italian city’s old fort, […]
Puerto Rico’s once-influential Government Development Bank has won agreement from some of its creditors to cut its debt burden and restructure its obligations. The organisation, which for years acted as the territory’s primary fiscal agent and evolved into a lender of last resort in times of distress, will transfer its assets into a new entity and issue new bonds in a deal that will see creditors take […]
Mr. Qalibaf had been under pressure from fellow hard-liners to fall in behind Mr. Raisi. Two other minor candidates are expected to withdraw before Friday, making the race a showdown between Mr. Raisi and Mr. Rouhani, clerics who hold strongly opposing views of Iran’s future. Mr. Rouhani said on Monday that he needed a strong victory to gain the mandate to carry out changes leading to more […]
Hours before Germany formally declared war on France in WWI, Marcel Proust penned a letter to his financial advisor that anticipated the horrors to come. “In the terrible days we are going through, you have other things to do besides writing letters and bothering with my petty interests, which I assure you seem wholly unimportant when I think that millions of men are going to be massacred […]
From the founding fathers through John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton, American politicians have indulged in extramarital affairs with slaves, movie stars, sisters-in-law and interns. But, in large part because of the press, the American public still reacts to political sex scandals as if they were completely unheard of. Americans remain shocked by these events, I believe, in large part because our perception has been shaped more […]
The cyberattack crippled IT systems and forced doctors and nurses to work with pen and paper notes. Image: iStock NHS hospitals are still struggling in the fight against a global ransomware attack, with computer systems in several hospitals locked three days after the initial outbreak and previously unaffected hospitals revealed to have fallen to WannaCrypt ransomware. During the weekend more than 200,000 victims in over 150 countries […]
Italy’s Atlantia has launched a bid to buy its Spanish rival Abertis in a deal that values the target at €16.3bn and would create one of the world’s largest toll road and infrastructure companies. Atlantia announced its bid on Monday even though it did not have the full backing of the Abertis cornerstone shareholder Criteria, the Barcelona-based holding of the powerful Caixa foundation. The offer is structured […]
By Dustin Volz and Eric Auchard | WASHINGTON/FRANKFURT WASHINGTON/FRANKFURT U.S. and European officials scrambled to catch the culprits behind a massive ransomware worm that caused damage across the globe over the weekend, stopping car factories, hospitals, shops and schools, as Microsoft pinned blame on governments for not disclosing more software vulnerabilities. The attack, which leveraged malicious software that security researchers widely believe was stolen from the U.S. National […]
President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya has called on China to rebalance an increasingly skewed trade relationship between Africa and the rising superpower, arguing that Beijing must do more to tackle a widening trade deficit. Africa’s trade balance with China has moved decisively into deficit due to a fall in the price of many African commodities, such as oil, copper, iron ore and cocoa. In 2015, the most […]
DUBAI // The Ministry of Education published a calendar for next academic year giving public school pupils in Dubai and the Northern Emirates a four-week winter break, while teachers will have two. The new school year will begin September 3 for teachers and September 10 for pupils. The winter break will begin December 17 for both pupils and teachers, and the second term will not resume until […]
Businesses must brace for further cyber attacks this week on a potentially “significant scale”, British intelligence officials warned on Sunday, less than 48 hours after the debilitating WannaCry infection swept across the world. Current data show more than 1.3m computer systems are still vulnerable to infection by WannaCry, which has paralysed hospitals, disrupted transport networks and immobilised businesses, according to cyber security analysts. So far, 200,000 computers […]
By Suleiman Al-Khalidi | AMMAN AMMAN More than 1,500 rebels and their family members left the devastated district of Qaboun on the edge of the Syrian capital Damascus after more than two months of aerial strikes and artillery shelling, rebels and state media said on Sunday. The rebels had agreed overnight to a secret evacuation deal after being cornered in a small pocket of Qaboun, which lies […]
