It’s game over for Alphabet’s Loon balloon broadband adventure January 22, 2021 Alphabet, the parent company of Google, said last night it will shut down its high-altitude broadband connectivity venture Loon. The announcement is at odds with its recent successful endeavours. Loon raised $125m from a SoftBank unit in 2019, and in April 2020 it launched the first balloons to provide commercial connectivity service to Kenyans following [...]
Navalny aide sent to prison to stifle tomorrow’s mass protests in Russia January 22, 2021 The press secretary for poisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been sentenced to nine days in prison today following a police roundup of several opposition aides. Navalny aide Kira Yarmysh tweeted during her arrest today, saying that police threatened to break down her door while detaining her. Continuing to tweet from custody, she said [...]
London mayoral election campaigns kick off despite lockdown January 22, 2021 The London mayoral election seems to kick off in earnest today as one of the underdog candidates will tour London in a Covid-secure tech bus. Mayoral candidate Brian Rose will go up against a current Mayor Sadiq Khan and travel the city in a tech-fitted bus, which includes a live-streaming TV studio. The businessman – [...]
Screenshot: Is it time for a music streaming reshuffle? January 22, 2021 This week **Media Moment of the Week: Elon Musk’s personal keyboard warrior **Music streaming royalties strike a bum note **The BBC screw turns again Media Moment of the Week Elon Musk is no stranger to social media spats. His indiscretions on Twitter have moved stock markets, led to a highly-publicised defamation suit and landed him [...]
Bar-a-Lago: Facebook to review Trump ban January 21, 2021 Facebook’s independent oversight board will review the company’s decision to ban former US president Donald Trump’s social media accounts. Both Trump’s Facebook and Instagram profiles will remain suspended while the review is underway, the company announced. In the first move of its kind, Mark Zuckerberg’s company suspended the former president earlier this month in the [...]
Elon Musk to turn oil rigs into floating SpaceX launchpads January 21, 2021 It’s usual practice for astronauts to splashdown in the water on their return from space, but up until now they’ve at least been able to take off from solid ground. However, this could all be about to change, after it was reported that billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has bought two oil rigs to be converted [...]
World leaders react to Joe Biden entering the White House January 21, 2021 The US is waking up to a new leader, and government vision, as Joe Biden became the country’s 46th president yesterday. The spotlight is now on the future of the country and its international relations rather than the twists and turns that made this presidential race so historic. Here is how world leaders reacted to [...]
Before the Bell: Honeymoon in Washington January 21, 2021 Joe Biden was sworn in as the new US President overnight with financial markets granting him a DC honeymoon on his first day as the buy everything trade returned with a vengeance. Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst atOANDA, said this morning that equity markets soared, as did precious metals, and currency markets saw commodity link currencies outperform [...]
Biden announces return to global climate accord, new curbs on U.S. oil industry January 21, 2021 By Valerie Volcovici and Trevor Hunnicutt WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced America’s return to the international Paris Agreement to fight climate change, the centerpiece of a raft of day-one executive orders aimed at restoring U.S. leadership in combating global warming. The announcements also included a sweeping order to review all of [...]
China sanctions Trump officials including Mike Pompeo January 20, 2021 China has slapped sanctions on 28 top US figures including former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, who it claimed violated Chinese sovereignty. Pompeo joined a list of US political heavyweights banned from doing business with China, including John Bolton, Donald Trump’s former national security advisor, Peter Navarro, former director of trade, and Steve Bannon, former [...]