EU removes US, Brazil and Russia from ‘safe visitors’ list June 30, 2020 The US, Russia and Brazil are excluded from a list of safe countries to travel to or accept visitors from, passed by EU member states this afternoon. Those featured on the list have now gained approval for business or leisure travel to a number of countries, which will come into effect tomorrow. The list of [...]
China has miscalculated — India will be the big winner of this new world order June 29, 2020 My friend, the Indian diplomat and politician Shashi Tharoor, once wisely said: “Everything in India is recycled, even dreams.” And now in our new era, India’s rightful pride in its fabulous history — and perennial fervent desire to return to the top table in global politics — is about to at last be realised. Delhi [...]
Asian stocks pass four-month high despite rising coronavirus cases June 24, 2020 Asian stocks cleared a four-month high overnight as investors remained stubbornly upbeat on the outlook for a re-opening of the global economy even as cases of the coronavirus looked to be accelerating to new peaks. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside Japan added 0.5 per cent to reach its highest since pandemic lockdowns first [...]
As China gears up on the cyber offensive, we need herd immunity to boost our national resilience June 19, 2020 With a GDP of $13.5 trillion, dwarfing Britain’s by almost $12 trillion, China is the third most economically powerful country in the world after Russia and the US — for now at least. And as the coronavirus outbreak disrupts the world in a way not seen since the Second World War, China is seeking to [...]
The Death of the Cloud June 18, 2020 The Cloud: a concept of genius, with its nature of simplicity and powerful, soft and fluffy values. The notion underlying it is that data is held in a disembodied form that is universal, as omnipresent as the clouds which envelop the world, intermeshing and interlinking so completely that there is only one single cloud which [...]
England’s Test and Trace system misses one in four people with coronavirus June 18, 2020 The number of contacts made by positive coronavirus cases identified by England’s NHS Test and Trace system increased to 44,895 in its second week, but it missed one in four infected patients. The Department of Health said today that 5,949 people who tested positive for coronavirus had their case transferred to the contact tracing system [...]
UK newspaper the Independent to launch Russian language edition June 17, 2020 British newspaper The Independent is set to launch an online Russian-language edition starting this month, according to Russia’s RBC media portal. Russian media magnate Alexander Lebedev, the financial backer of both the Independent and the Evening Standard, provided no specific date of the launch. Artem Artemov, the editor overseeing the roll out, told RBC that [...]
European Union begins Fiat-PSA mega-merger probe June 17, 2020 European Union officials have launched a four-month probe into the $50bn mega-merger between Peugeot owner PSA and Fiat Chrysler (FCA) over competition fears. Antitrust regulators are concerned about the merged entity’s high market share in the lucrative small van sector. Upon completion of the merger, the new Fiat-PSA company will control a third of the [...]
German virus tracing app hits 6.5m downloads as Norway and Russia experience technical glitches June 17, 2020 Germany’s app to help trace coronavirus infections has been downloaded 6.5m times within the first 24 hours since its launch. Chief executive of software giant SAP Christian Klein today said he viewed the promising figures as a sign of a job well done, following a collaborative effort between SAP and Deutsche Telekom to develop the [...]
Astrazeneca CEO: Coronavirus vaccine will likely protect for a year June 16, 2020 A potential coronavirus vaccine spearheaded by Astrazeneca and the University of Oxford will likely provide protection against Covid-19 for a year, the pharma giant’s CEO has said. The British drugs firm this week began human trials of the possible vaccine in collaboration with the University of Oxford, with clinical testing entering its third phase. “We [...]