By Se Young Lee and Ju-min Park | SEOUL SEOUL South Korea’s liberal leader Moon Jae-in will take the oath of office as president on Wednesday, tasked with navigating the country out of rising geopolitical tensions over North Korea’s nuclear programme and the risk of a rift with the United States. Moon, 64, is expected to announce major cabinet and presidential staff appointments as early as Wednesday […]
Turkey was informed of Mr. Trump’s decision, according to an American official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was discussing private diplomatic communications. Continue reading the main story The Turkish government had no immediate reaction, with officials declining to comment before Mr. Erdogan’s office did. But the move was likely to anger Mr. Erdogan, who has been pressing the United States to lessen its […]
By Allison Lampert | MONTREAL MONTREAL A United Nations agency has launched efforts to craft global guidance for the use of laptops and other portable electronics in aircraft passenger cabins after selective bans by the United States and Britain, made in response to security threats, angered some passengers and Middle East airlines. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has pushed forward with the plan after certain countries […]
By Jonathan Stempel | OMAHA, Neb. OMAHA, Neb. It has been decades since anyone thought of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc, or even its insurance operations, as “very, very small.” But that’s how a senior executive describes biBERK, a unit that lets owners of small businesses shop online for commercial vehicle, general liability, property, workers’ compensation and eventually professional liability insurance. The biBERK chief operating officer, Rakesh […]
Moon Jae-in has triumphed in the South Korean presidential election with over 40 percent of the vote, according to exit polls. But the liberal leader’s solid victory can’t patch over deeper political wounds. Just as the United Kingdom’s vote to leave the European Union left British society divided and Donald Trump’s election polarized Americans, the impeachment of Park Geun-hye has split South Korea. While more than 75 […]
A ransomware attack against any business could be potentially devastating, but there are some sectors which are more at risk from file-encrypting attacks than others, as cybercriminals prey on industries which can’t afford to not have access to their networks. Ransomware has boomed over the last 18 months, growing from an annoyance which targeted home PC users with moderate ransom demands, to a billion-dollar industry, with cybercriminals […]
On Monday, we brought you the story of TokenCard, the Ethereum-based venture set to revolutionise the world of payments by bringing crypto folk the, errr, power of the Visa network. Yes, you’re wondering, what’s so special about that? Doesn’t every above-board payment facilitator offer Visa access? You’re right. They do. And a card processed by Visa is hardly a breakthrough innovation worth shouting about here in the […]
Feathery clouds hang above a stretch of aquamarine water, bordered by a hilly island landscape speckled with pastel-coloured houses. There’s a cruise ship, some yachts, a couple of chase boats and some sailboats – but not the typical kind, with soft fabric sails fluttering in the wind. These are professional racing sailboats, with statuesque sails that sport the logos of luxury brands. They are riding the waves […]
Sign up to receive FirstFT by email here Days after Donald Trump was elected, President Barack Obama warned his successor against hiring former general Michael Flynn as his security adviser. Mr Trump ignored the advice and Mr Flynn resigned after 17 days on the job amid the growing investigation of the Trump team’s ties to Russia. This is just one of the revelations to emerge following a Senate […]
By Nichola Saminather | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Asian stock markets edged down on Tuesday following a flat close on Wall Street, as investors searched for the next catalyst following France’s presidential election, while oil inched higher on expectations OPEC supply cuts will be extended. Financial spreadbetters expect Britain’s FTSE 100 .FTSE, Germany’s DAX .GDAXI and France’s CAC 40 .FCHI to all open flat. The South Korean stock market, […]
Today’s State of Work: At the Breaking Point ServiceNow is rolling out a machine learning engine that’s designed to predict outages, automate routing and workflow, predict outcomes, and benchmark performance. The engine, called the Intelligent Automation Engine, was built with technology from ServiceNow’s DxContinuum acquisition in January. ServiceNow said that it will use the Intelligent Automation Engine across the platform and in cloud services for customer service, […]
‘Silver weapons bear magical powers to conquer foes’. The proverb ascribed to the ancient Greek’s Delphic Oracle has survived centuries to become a favourite selling pitch for information security tools. Silver weapons, now like then, are a myth. Yet we information security professionals regularly encounter pitches selling intrusion prevention systems, threat intelligence, and other defensive technologies as a cure-all to complex problems. Organisations, despite the marketing pitch, […]
Scientists conducting studies that investigate how certain cancer tumors form have made an accidental discovery that may potentially lead to the development of a cure for balding and graying hair. Accidental Discovery Study researcher Lu Le, from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and colleagues unexpectedly discovered what is responsible for turning hair gray and making it fall out or stop growing. The researchers found that […]
TOKYO The International Monetary Fund called on Asian economies to learn from Japan’s experience and act early to cope with rapidly ageing populations, warning that parts of the region risk “getting old before becoming rich.” Asia has enjoyed substantial demographic dividends in the past decades, but the growing number of elderly is set to create a demographic “tax” on growth, the IMF said in its economic outlook […]
The former head of the US Department of Justice told Congress that she had warned the White House in January that Michael Flynn, the first national security adviser appointed by Donald Trump, could be blackmailed by Russia. Sally Yates, who served as acting attorney-general early in the Trump administration, told Congress that she had warned the White House that Mr Flynn had left himself open to being […]
Deloitte has announced that it has acquired Strut Digital, a Sydney-based professional and managed services firm, to fill the DevOps gap in its cloud implementation service. Kevin Russo, lead partner in Deloitte’s Technology, Strategy, and Architecture division, told ZDNet that Strut was the next logical acquisition for Deloitte, complementing the purchases of Plenary Networks, Sixtree, and Cloud Solutions Group over the last couple of years. He added […]
Emirates NBD, Dubai’s biggest bank, has announced that it is the first bank in the UAE to process loan or card applications using the Al Etihad Credit Bureau (AECB) Consumer Retail Banking Score. The AECB Consumer Retail Credit Bureau Score is the first scoring system for UAE’s retail banking customers, exclusively developed for risk prediction using historical data on repayment behaviour reported to Al Etihad Credit Bureau. […]
By Shu Zhang and Matthew Miller | BEIJING BEIJING A Chinese government campaign to cut leverage in the banking system and limit some risky activities appears to be working, but it is also pushing borrowers back towards alternative funding sources that carry similar risks to the financial system. First-quarter official data shows banks cut the amount they lent to and borrowed from other financial institutions by 1.4 […]
Power grid vulnerabilities are one of the most prevalent national security threats. The technical community calls for building up grid resiliency using distributed energy and microgrids for stabilization as multiple sources increases the difficulty of triggering cascading blackouts, and following an attack or natural disaster, microgrids can provide localized energy security. An interdisciplinary team calculated what it takes to make military bases more secure. (via WSJ)
A crux of an outdoor climbing route (left) vs. one using fabricated holds (right). Credit: Dartmouth College Through a combination of 3-D modeling, digital fabrication and other techniques, a Dartmouth-led research team has replicated sections of popular, outdoor rock climbing routes on an indoor climbing wall. The study demonstrates how these technologies can be used strategically to reproduce large-scale environments by considering how users interact with such […]
Zaha Hadid’s first project in Dubai is a work of art to rival any of the renowned Iraqi-born architect’s award-winning structures, and will add something very different to the city’s burgeoning collection of prestige buildings. In many ways, a visit to Dubai’s Business Bay feels like a trip back to the future – to a city that feels eerily familiar to anyone who can remember the giddy […]
Monday 16:30 BST What you need to know • The euro is losing momentum after touching a six-month high, down 0.6 per cent at $1.0925 • New York equity markets are muted; European equities markets are falling back, led by banks after early momentum from the French election continues to fade • Oil prices have also been volatile with both Brent and WTI seesawing either side of […]
TRIPOLI/ROME More than 200 migrants are feared to have died in the Mediterranean over the weekend, according to testimony from survivors, and several bodies, including that of an infant, have washed up on a Libyan beach. About 7,500 people have been rescued off the coast of Libya since Thursday, the Italian and Libyan coastguards said. Two groups of survivors told the organisations that hundreds drowned when their […]
08 May 2017 Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB), Qatar’s leading Islamic Bank, signs a US$ 925 million (QR 3.4 billion) structured Shari’a compliant financing facility with Gulf Drilling International Limited QSC (GDI). This new facility will be used to re-organize the company’s debt and further enhance its operational and financial performance. QIB successfully originated, structured and executed the transaction which used an innovative financing structure to meet the […]
