India bans 59 Chinese apps including Tiktok as standoff escalates June 29, 2020 The Indian government has banned 59 Chinese apps including social media platform Tiktok amid privacy concerns, as tensions between the two countries continue to escalate. India today announced it has blacklisted the usage of certain apps, including Sherait, UC Browser, Clash of Kings, Baidu, We Chat and Xiaomi, claiming they “pose a threat to the [...]
Covid consolidation bears low-hanging fruit for traders June 29, 2020 No understatement is truer than the one about how “nothing will ever be the same again” following the coronavirus pandemic. Businesses in the hundreds of thousands will not reopen. Millions of jobs have been lost. Billions of dollars have been wiped off the valuations of household brands and City darlings. Past worries about Brexit seem [...]
Johnson is ‘asleep at the wheel’, says Labour’s Starmer June 29, 2020 Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been too slow at making decisions during the coronavirus crisis, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said today. “I think the Prime Minister has been asleep at the wheel, he has been slow, the comms, the communications has been terrible,” Starmer told ITV. “It began to break down frankly when Dominic [...]
The City View: Race, diversity and leadership in business, with Julia Streets June 29, 2020 Subscribe to The City View Podcast: Apple / Google / Spotify / RSS In this episode Christian is joined by Julia Streets, founder of Streets consulting and host of the long-running DiverCity podcast for a wide-ranging conversation about corporate diversity and the importance of leadership at a time when businesses of all sizes are looking to their own track record in improving diversity in [...]
The failure of the track and trace app is the least-worst thing about it June 27, 2020 Last week, the UK government announced a radical change in direction in its track and trace programme. Its contact-tracing app, first announced in early May and once promised as a “world beating” solution, was pulled from development. The NHSX app was abandoned because Apple and Google refused to yield on personal privacy restrictions that are [...]
Amazon buys self-driving startup Zoox for $1bn June 26, 2020 Amazon has acquired US self-driving startup Zoox, marking its first major step into the driverless cars market. The deal is valued at more than $1bn, the Information first reported. Amazon declined to confirm the size of the acquisition. Zoox chief executive Aicha Evans and chief technology officer Jesse Levinson will continue to lead Zoox as [...]
Microsoft to permanently close all retail stores June 26, 2020 Microsoft has said it intends to keep all of its retail locations closed permanently, as it reorganises its sales offering towards online shopping. It said its retail team members will “continue to serve customers from Microsoft corporate facilities”, remotely providing sales, training, and support. No job losses were mentioned. It added that it will reimagine some of its [...]
US second wave: America sets one-day record for coronavirus cases, Texas pauses reopening June 26, 2020 The US set a new record for a one-day increase in cases yesterday as fears of a second wave caused states to step back from reopening. The governor of Texas temporarily halted the state’s reopening yesterday as coronavirus infections and hospitalisations surged in the latest sign yet of a US second wave. Texas, which has [...]
The City View: Why boards must go digital, with Ben Noland, CEO of Shaparency June 26, 2020 In this episode Christian is joined by Ben Noland, founder of shareholder engagement platform Shaparency. Subscribe to The City View Podcast: Apple / Google / Spotify / RSS Ben makes the case for a digital revolution in governance, boardroom decision-making and shareholder engagement, arguing that there’s no excuse for low turnout in shareholder votes and everything to gain from empowering your shareholder [...]
Google to automatically delete search and location data June 25, 2020 Google will now automatically delete your search and location history after 18 months, as it attempts to assuage concerns from regulators that it controls too much information about individuals. Users will be able to toggle in their settings to wipe their data every three or 18 months, with the latter now automatically turned on. The [...]