Category: Business
The new Russia
Many in the West hoped that Western sanctions and Mr Putin’s blunders in Ukraine, including the senseless sacrifice of legions of young Russians, might doom his regime. Yet it survived. Russia’s economy has been re-engineered. Oil exports bypass sanctions and are shipped to the global south. Western brands from bmw to h&m have been replaced
Extend oil cuts to boost prices
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 sent oil prices soaring to $140, raising earnings across the industry. The OPEC+ oil alliance of 22 nations has implemented supply cuts of more than five million barrels per day (bpd) since the end of 2022.Moscow, Riyadh and several other OPEC+ members on Sunday announced extensions to oil production
America and Russia space weapons
Among the most closely observed objects are two recently launched robotic space planes, smaller versions of the space shuttle. America’s x37-b lifted off from Cape Canaveral on December 28th (pictured). China’s Shenlong, or Divine Dragon, was lofted a fortnight earlier. Both missions are largely secret. Space planes’ ability to undertake long missions, deliver and capture payloads, change
Music labels leaving TikTok over Universal Music label
Universal’s music was licensed to TikTok until earlier this year – but they let the license lapse after failing to reach an agreement over how much the app should pay artists. As a result, the label’s recording catalogue, which is around three million songs, was removed at the start of February. TikTok says it has
Gmail is “shutting down”
Gmail is the world’s most popular email service, with more than 1.5bn active users worldwide, In 2023 alone, Google killed its Stadia gaming service, its Snapchat-like YouTube Stories feature, and it began closing old and inactive Gmail accounts. It has has announced plans to close Google Podcasts, though this functionality has effectively been supplanted by
Cellular outage in the US
Users in major cities, including San Francisco, Houston, Atlanta, and Chicago, reported outages. It was not immediately clear what caused the service disruptions. A cellular outage affected thousands of users across the United States on Thursday. More than 73,000 customers reported outages, service providers AT&T, Cricket Wireless, Verizon, T-Mobile and other networks were affected, though
Romania hit by Ransomware
Over a hundred Romanian healthcare facilities have been been affected by a ransomware attack, the attack largely unfolded overnight on Monday, according to a statement from the Romanian Ministry of Health and had targeted a widely used medical information system. The cyber extortionists demanded 3.5 Bitcoin, worth over £130,000, to unlock vital files which they
Israel Stops Relief food for millions of Palestinians
The World Food Program warned Friday that Gaza could be plunged into famine as early as May. The U.N. food agency defines a famine as when 30% of children are malnourished, one-fifth of households face acute food shortages and two of every 10,000 people are dying from hunger or malnutrition. Israel has imposed financial restrictions
Foldable Apple 16
Foldable phones have been growing in popularity and sophistication since the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Fold back in 2019. Samsung’s latest offering, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5, has been joined by the Motorola Razr+ and the Google Pixel Fold. Since the first iPhone went on sale back in 2007, Apple’s smartphones have looked
nationalization of Rosneft’s German activities
Russian oil giant Rosneft says it has been told that Germany’s Economy Ministry is considering expropriating shares in the business. German officials put the refinery under a trusteeship in September 2022 in light of Russia’s fully-fledged invasion of Ukraine. Rosneft has said it will adopt all measures to protect the rights of its shareholders, adding