THE OIL PRICE was supposed to be soaring around now. With American sanctions against Iran taking effect earlier this month, exports from Iran, the world’s fourth-largest producer of crude oil last year, were expected to shrink to close to zero. In anticipation the oil price went above $86 in early October, a four-year-high, and some…
Image copyright HoC The UK is "significantly closer" to delivering on the result of the Brexit vote, Theresa May has told MPs.She told the Commons it would give the UK control of borders, laws and money - and also protect business and jobs. The PM is now in a crucial cabinet meeting where she is…
Back at the start of the year, a set of attacks that leveraged the speculative execution capabilities of modern high-performance processors was revealed. The attacks were named Meltdown and Spectre. Since then, numerous variants of these attacks have been devised. In tandem, a range of mitigation techniques has been created to enable at-risk software, operating…
THE CAREER OF China’s biggest property tycoon can be divided into two stages. Xu Jiayin started slowly, focusing on Guangzhou, a southern city. Then came the global financial crisis and the government’s response, a giant economic stimulus, launched a decade ago this month. For Mr Xu it was a signal to become far bolder. His…
THE FATE of the euro was always going to depend on Italy. With annual GDP of more than €1.6trn ($1.9trn), about 15% of euro-area output and debt of nearly €2.3trn, it poses a challenge to the single currency that Europe seems unable to manage but cannot avoid. Matters are now coming to a head, as…
The program, which focuses on the prospects of North-South integration, is led by Victor Cha, a prominent North Korea expert whom the Trump administration considered appointing as the ambassador to South Korea last year. His name was pulled back when he objected to the White House strategy for dealing with Kim Jong-un, the North Korean…
Enlarge / The sonification process involved assigning specific pitches and melodies to such characteristics in the data as brightness, color, and the elevation of the terrain. YouTube/NASANASA's Mars rover Opportunity fell silent earlier this year, but even if it never regains full function, it had one last gift to give. Scientists have transformed Opportunity's image…
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong called on Monday for greater integration between Southeast Asian countries at a time when multilateralism is under threat. Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong speaks at the ASEAN Business and Investment Summit in Singapore, November 12, 2018. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha His remarks came at a business summit…
SHANGHAI, China — Alibaba just made e-commerce history. With the company's massive Singles' Day celebration on 11/11 — November 11 — coming to a close, Alibaba reports that customers spent $30.8 billion online over the last 24 hours. That is a significant increase from the $25.3 billion in gross merchandise volume (GMV) Alibaba shoppers spent…
SHORTLY AFTER 2am on November 11th 1918 a train came to a halt in a wood in Compiègne, near Paris. A second train pulled up on a nearby track. After four years of fighting, delegates of the German government sought an armistice from Ferdinand Foch, the commander of the French forces. Rare photos of the…
