Holland & Barrett sold to Russian billionaire for £1.8bn June 26, 2017 Health food store Holland & Barrett has been sold to a Russian billionaire for £1.8bn. US private equity firm Carlyle is selling the UK’s largest health retailer to L1 Retail, a fund controlled by Mikhail Fridman. The deal for the 1,150 store chain is the first acquisition for L1 Retail. It is thought that chief [...]
Banks to be forced to reveal all cyber security breaches to the European Central Bank June 19, 2017 All banks regulated by the European Central Bank (ECB) will be forced to reveal all major cyber security breaches, according to one of the supervisor’s bosses. Starting this summer, banks directly supervised by the ECB will have to “report all significant cyber incidents”, said Sabine Lautenschlaeger, a member of the ECB’s executive board. At a [...]
Russia World Cup 2018: Clouds still hanging over Fifa and its tournament host with just over a year to go June 15, 2017 The Confederations Cup is normally a moment for football fans’ excitement to begin in earnest. Kicking off in Russia on Saturday, the competition marks a year until the country stages the next World Cup and offers a chance both for supporters to gauge the quality of potential contenders and for governing body Fifa to test [...]
Was Trump wrong to hire son-in-law Jared Kushner? June 1, 2017 With recent allegations about a ‘backchannel’ with Russia, was Trump wrong to hire son-in-law Jared Kushner? Sarah Kendzior, journalist and scholar of authoritarian states, says YES. Donald Trump is attempting to build a dynastic kleptocracy through abuse of executive power. Autocrats are typically paranoid and insular, relying on family and installing them in the government, [...]
The new space race: Private companies are getting into the business of space travel – and it could produce the world’s first trillionaire May 30, 2017 Five-minutes’ drive from Kennedy Space Center, among the marshes and pine trees of Merritt Island Wildlife Reserve, lies Shuttles Restaurant & Bar. On the back wall is a massive photograph of the Space Shuttle Atlantis, soaring into space on the back of an orange fuel tank. Bolted to its side are two white rockets, spouting [...]
WannaCry ransomware NHS cyber attack: A final warning for banks and fintech May 15, 2017 It was the most high profile cyber attack in some time, and one of the largest ever carried out. Governments, hospitals, companies and universities in over 150 countries were affected by the recent ‘WannaCry’ cyber attack, which affected more than 230,000 computers with ransomware and demanded bitcoin payments. Media coverage in the UK focused on [...]
FBI director confirms agency is investigating links between Russia and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign March 20, 2017 FBI director James Comey has confirmed the security agency is investigating allegations that Russia had an influence over President Trump's campaign ahead of last year's election, and revealed the probe began last July. Comey was testifying to the US House of Representatives intelligence committee, along with National Security Agency director Admiral Mike Rogers. It is unusual [...]
Financier Bill Browder, thorn in Putin’s side, is on the verge of securing a UK Magnitsky law after a five-year push March 20, 2017 Since Sergei Magnitsky was killed in a Russian jail in 2009, financier Bill Browder has campaigned vociferously to bring those responsible for his former lawyer’s death to justice. This high-profile activity has set him on a collision course with the Russian authorities and specifically Vladimir Putin. In apparent retaliation against his justice campaign, the Russian [...]
73 candid Hitler photos have been sold for £34,000 at an auction in Kent March 17, 2017 A series of candid photos of Adolf Hitler sold for £34,000 to an unidentified bidder in an auction held this week in Royal Tunbridge Wells. The photos belonged to Eva Braun, the dictator's long-time companion and briefly his wife. They were discovered in April 1945 in Hitler’s Berlin bunker among Braun’s other possessions. Read more: Ken [...]
Yahoo hack: US Justice Department files charges against Russian spies in connection with cyber breach March 15, 2017 US authorities have filed charges against Russian intelligence officials in connection with a massive hack of data from Yahoo in 2014. The US Justice Department (DOJ) has indicted four defendants, including two officers of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), for "computer hacking, economic espionage and other criminal offenses in connection with a conspiracy, beginning in January [...]