Gautam Sharma Back in the good old days, Honda was an engineering-focused company that gave us scintillating driver’s cars such as the 1990s NSX, DC2 Integra Type R and S2000 roadster. But for the past decade or so the Japanese carmaker has been content to adopt a much more conservative posture, churning out good quality – but vanilla-flavoured – offerings. Pretty much every model in the current […]
Photo Shamsuldeen Ahmed Saed and Haitham Younis Wahab rigging a small water pump in the Rashidiya neighborhood of Mosul, Iraq. Credit Ben C. Solomon/The New York Times MOSUL, Iraq — The water taps are dry in Rashidiya. The water and sewage system collapsed in this eastern Mosul neighborhood after 100 days of street combat. On Sunday, Haitham Younis Wahab and his neighbor Shamsuldeen Ahmed Saed decided to […]
By Hyunjoo Jin and Joyce Lee | SEOUL SEOUL Samsung Group chief Jay Y. Lee was arrested early on Friday over his alleged role in a corruption scandal rocking the highest levels of power in South Korea, dealing a fresh blow to the world’s biggest maker of smartphones and memory chips. The 48-year-old Lee, scion of the country’s richest family, was taken into custody at the Seoul […]
A South Korean court has approved an arrest warrant for Samsung’s heir Lee Jae-yong. This concerns the bribery and embezzlement charges against Lee, which also form part of a wider corruption scandal that has led to the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye in December. Arrest Order The arrest order, which was issued by the Seoul Central District Court Feb. 17, is expected to send shockwaves not just […]
SYDNEY More than 1,400 residents of New Zealand’s Christchurch city returned home on Friday as firefighters contained a massive wildfire that led to their evacuation, destroying properties and power networks. The wildfire in Christchurch’s Port Hills district spread rapidly over Thursday, covering more than 1,800 hectares (4,447 acres) and forcing authorities to declare a state of emergency, which remained in place on Friday. The Civil Defence said […]
Carolyn Ryan, The New York Times’ senior politics editor, is getting a promotion. Ryan, who ran The Times’ coverage of the presidential campaign, will join the Times’ masthead as an assistant editor in charge of recruitment, according to a memo from Executive Editor Dean Baquet and Managing Editor Joe Kahn. “Carolyn’s primary responsibility will be to recruit investigative reporters, narrative writers, beat reporters, editors and visual journalists […]
The “scorpion” robot is designed to withstand up to 1,000 sieverts of radiation A “scorpion” robot sent into a Japanese nuclear reactor to learn about the damage suffered in a tsunami-induced meltdown had its mission aborted after the probe ran into trouble, Tokyo Electric Power company said Thursday. TEPCO, the operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant, sent the remote-controlled device into the No. 2 reactor where radiation […]
We are in an era of “Hyperscale companies” such as Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Apple with limited opportunities for startups warns Sam Altman, head of Y Combinator, Silicon Valley’s influential investment group and educator. In his 2017 YC Annual Letter Altman wrote: “We’re now in the era of hyperscale technology companies…Companies like Amazon, Facebook, Google, Apple, and Microsoft have powerful advantages “ “I expect that they […]
When is an internal combustion engine not an internal combustion engine? When it’s been transformed into a modular reforming reactor that could make hydrogen available to power fuel cells wherever there’s a natural gas supply available. (via WSJ)
Image: Relax VR The early promise of virtual reality (VR) was vast: We would be transported to new worlds and live in alternate realities. While scientists and programmers have been investigating the possibilities of VR since the 1960s, it’s only in the last few years that the technology started to gain mainstream traction, with VR applications spanning from education to real estate. Australian startup Relax VR is […]
Samsung’s heir apparent Lee Jae-yong has been arrested for bribery, embezzlement and perjury in connection with a massive corruption scandal, in a huge setback for South Korea’s largest conglomerate that could hinder its succession and restructuring plans. The 48-year-old de factor leader of Samsung is the highest-profile business figure engulfed by the influence-peddling scandal that is poised to topple President Park Geun-hye. The arrest of Samsung’s chief […]
A new innovation could make printing solar cells as easy and inexpensive as printing a newspaper. Researchers have cleared a critical manufacturing hurdle in the development of a relatively new class of solar devices called perovskite solar cells. This alternative solar technology could lead to low-cost, printable solar panels capable of turning nearly any surface into a power generator. (via WSJ)
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg emphasized the importance of a “strong news industry” in his 5,000-plus word manifesto published this afternoon. Calling the news “critical to building an informed community,” Zuckerberg said Facebook will do more “to make sure this vital social function is sustainable.” “…From growing local news, to developing formats best suited to mobile devices, to improving the range of business models news organizations rely on,” […]
By John Irish | BONN, Germany BONN, Germany France considers the U.S. position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “confused and worrying”, its foreign minister said on Thursday, reacting to U.S. President Trump’s dropping of the America’s commitment to a two-state solution. Jean-Marc Ayrault met Secretary of State Rex Tillerson at a G20 meeting of foreign ministers in Bonn where, he said, he got some reassurance about Washington’s stance […]
Credit: Disney Research A new method developed by Disney Research for wirelessly transmitting power throughout a room enables users to charge electronic devices as seamlessly as they now connect to WiFi hotspots, eliminating the need for electrical cords or charging cradles. The researchers demonstrated their method, called quasistatic cavity resonance (QSCR), inside a specially built 16-by-16-foot room at their lab. They safely generated near-field standing magnetic waves […]
Ten years ago Vladimir Putin angrily declared that the post-cold war order was a sham. Standing before the western military and diplomatic establishment at the Munich Security Conference, the Russian president accused the US of plunging the world into chaos by warmongering, meddling in other countries’ affairs and disregarding international law. For many, it marked the moment that Mr Putin became an adversary. Now, as foreign policy […]
SMEs are going to dominate the renewables space, especially in emerging markets, such as the GCC, with the private sector playing a key role in driving adoption. UAE SMEs driving adoption and growth of the renewables sector The UAE’s cleantech industry is today buzzing with several start-ups and medium sized firms investing huge amounts of time and resources to identify better, more efficient and sustainable ways to […]
The alerts are designed to warn people about impending severe weather events such as flooding. Image: IBM Research scientists are building a new form of networking technology designed to provide billions of people with potentially lifesaving weather alerts, even if they don’t have internet connectivity. Developed by IBM Research and The Weather Company, Mesh Network Alerts is a peer-to-peer mesh networking technology that allows Android devices to […]
The owner of the messaging app Snapchat has set its valuation as high as $22.2bn ahead of its initial public offering, less than the company had originally hoped for but still putting it on track to be one of the US’s largest tech flotations. A price range of $14 to $16 a share, revealed in an updated regulatory filing on Thursday, puts Snap’s valuation in a range […]
It is not just equities that are rebounding this month. The dollar is up almost 2 per cent against a basket of its peers as it resumes an upward path that most in the foreign exchange market believe is the natural consequence of the economic policies Donald Trump has vowed to deliver. Given the US president has suggested he prefers a weaker dollar, its fresh strength has […]
By Robin Emmott | BRUSSELS BRUSSELS European NATO allies agreed on Thursday to jointly buy planes and submarines and possibly open a new command headquarters for elite troops as Europe seeks to show the United States it is serious about its own security. In signing ceremonies at NATO, defence ministers from France and Germany said they will buy Lockheed Martin C-130J transport planes, while Germany, Belgium and […]
In 2017 and beyond, consumers will finally start to benefit from some of the innovations that have been evolving over the past year, from 3D prosthetics to customised insurance packages. Many of these trends will be cemented in our routine lives over the next couple of years. Innovative insurance A new era has dawned on the UAE’s insurance industry since the rollout of the Dubai Health Authority’s […]
Last month Beijing’s ambassador in Pyongyang held a Chinese new year reception for more than 70 senior North Korean officials. According to Chinese news reports, the ambassador’s guests lauded “the blood alliance and friendship between both countries”. On Sunday, just three weeks later, Kim Jong Un would severely test the patience of his Chinese “friends” with a ballistic missile test. Then came the murder in Malaysia on […]
Mr. Trump’s position on a two-state solution discarded a policy that has underpinned America’s role in Middle East peacemaking since the Clinton administration and raised a host of thorny questions. Continue reading the main story The Palestinians are highly unlikely to accept anything short of a sovereign state, and a single Israeli state encompassing the Palestinians would either leave them as second-class citizens or would no longer […]
