Photo: In this long exposure photo, the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying the Boeing Starliner crew capsule lifts off on an orbital flight test to the International Space Station from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force station, Friday, Dec. 20, 2019, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Boeing aimed to bring its Starliner crew capsule back to ...
Read More »Monthly Archives: December 2019
UK approves £4bn US takeover of defence company Cobham
The government has approved a US private equity firm’s takeover of UK defence and aerospace company Cobham, reports BBC. Advent International made a £4bn offer to buy Cobham in July, but it was delayed when the government intervened over national security concerns.The government announced its approval of the deal late on Friday night – which the firm’s founding family said ...
Read More »Experts at UEL conference focus on handling water emergencies
How to deal with major reservoir incidents such as the one in Derbyshire in August this year, holding 1.2m tonnes of water, which flooded following heavy rains at Toddbrook Reservoir, was among the key topics discussed by over 40 experts from the water industry, gathered at the University of East London last week. The experts focused on ...
Read More »Tower Hamlets in Bloom Awards 2019
Recognition for those who help make the borough bright and beautiful Gardening groups, individuals and organisations who help to make public spaces greener and brighter, have been recognised at the council’s Tower Hamlets in Bloom Awards at the Art Pavilion, Mile End Park on 11 December. The council runs the annual horticultural competition in a bid to encourage more ...
Read More »Colombia orders Uber to halt its operations after lawsuit
Colombia on Friday instructed Uber to stop operating after a lawsuit by a group of taxi drivers that accused the ride-sharing app of unfair business practices, reports AP. Colombia’s Superintendency of Industry and Commerce said the halt to Uber operations was taking effect immediately, though the company can appeal the decision. Uber was benefiting from a “significant advantage” that violated ...
Read More »Researcher: Data on 267 million Facebook users exposed
A Ukrainian security researcher reported finding a database with the names, phone numbers and unique user IDs of more than 267 million Facebook users — nearly all U.S.-based — on the open internet. That data was likely harvested by criminals, said researcher Bob Diachenko, an independent security consultant in Kyiv. The database, which Diachenko discovered with a search engine, was ...
Read More »Climate challenge requires collective action
Rayhan Ahmed Topader: The Climate Risk Engines are purpose built to compute hypothetical future risks to a modelled representative asset (synthesized with engineering data) designed to represent property and infrastructure. The system enables each such asset to be stress-tested against a wide range of extreme weather and extreme sea events typical of its location. A range of future-looking scenarios ...
Read More »IMF approves release of $498.4 mn for Ecuador
The International Monetary Fund on Thursday approved a delayed loan tranche for Ecuador, releasing nearly $500 million under a three-year aid program, reports AFP. The IMF board gave the go-ahead for a $4.2 billion loan in March to help support the oil-rich nation’s economic reforms, but massive protests lead by indigenous groups erupted in October when President Lenin Moreno scrapped ...
Read More »NASA’s Mars 2020 rover completes first driving test
NASA’s Mars 2020 rover has successfully passed its first driving test, according to a release of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, on Wednesday. A preliminary assessment of the rover’s activities on Tuesday showed that it checked all the necessary boxes as it rolled forward and backward and pirouetted in a clean room at JPL. The next time ...
Read More »Fiat Chrysler-Peugeot merger could bring more clean vehicles
Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot agreed Wednesday to merge into a single company that will become the world’s fourth-largest automaker, a giant that could bring consumers a wider variety of cleaner vehicles at a faster pace, including more powered by electricity. The boards of the two companies signed the deal to achieve what neither was good at alone: conquering the challenges ...
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