I'm A Celebrity could swap Australian bush for haunted Gwrych Castle
A Welsh castle is favourite to host Ant and Dec's I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! What's in store?
A Welsh castle is favourite to host Ant and Dec's I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! What's in store?
Hong Kong (AFP) Aug 10, 2020
Shares in a Hong Kong media group critical of Beijing soared more than 300 percent on Monday as democracy activists hit social media urging investors to support the media company after its owner was arrested under the city's new security law.
Jimmy Lai, one of the city's most vocal Beijing critics, and leading executives were arrested in the morning for alleged fraud and colluding with forei
Khartoum (AFP) Aug 7, 2020
Sudanese troops and civilians were killed in a clashes with a rebel group in the country's south, an army statement said Friday, without specifying the number of casualties.
"Rebels from the Sudan People's Liberation Army-North (SPLA-N) attacked nomadic herders on their migration route from the south to the north and soldiers securing a road, ambushing them and planting mines" in the South
Shanghai (AFP) Aug 9, 2020
Chinese entrants in the race to put autonomous vehicles on the road are bringing "robotaxis" online in hopes that a hired-car format can be the key to unlocking wide acceptance of the futuristic technology.
It is expected to be years before cars that operate completely without human intervention are unleashed owing to lingering technological, regulatory, and safety hurdles.
But as China
Beijing (AFP) Aug 10, 2020
China's consumer inflation edged up in July, official data showed Monday, partly because of rising food prices from flood-related disruptions and as the country recovers from the coronavirus outbreak.
The consumer price index (CPI), a key gauge of retail inflation, had been pushed up over the past year by livestock prices after China's pig herds were ravaged by African swine fever, with the
Hong Kong (AFP) Aug 10, 2020
Asian markets mostly rose Monday, with investors keeping a wary eye on China-US trade talks planned for the weekend, which come after Washington imposed sanctions on several Hong Kong officials, further straining tensions between the superpowers.
Adding to uncertainty was US lawmakers' inability to find common ground on a much-needed, new stimulus for the world's top economy, with executive
Beijing (AFP) Aug 7, 2020
China saw another surprise jump in exports last month as the global economy slowly reopened after virus lockdowns, data showed Friday, but there were warnings that while the country is expected to get back on track by year's end overseas shipments would likely struggle.
The readings, however, showed an unexpected fall in imports, highlighting the battle leaders have in stoking domestic deman
San Francisco (AFP) Aug 6, 2020
California has filed lawsuits against Uber and Lyft for alleged wage theft by misclassifying their drivers as independent contractors rather than employees, the Labor Commissioner's Office said Wednesday.
Classifying their drivers as independent contractors "has deprived these workers of a host of legal protections in violation of California labor law," the office said in a statement.
Un
Hong Kong (AFP) Aug 7, 2020
A new China-US flare-up sent markets tumbling Friday, while the mood was also soured by US lawmakers' struggles to agree on a new economic stimulus - all against a backdrop of surging virus infections.
China-US tensions were back on traders' minds after President Donald Trump signed an executive order barring US residents from doing any business with the Chinese parent companies of social m
New York (AFP) Aug 9, 2020
Seven months after the United States and China signed a preliminary agreement to temper their trade war, Beijing's purchases of US agricultural goods have yet to reach the deal's target.
As President Donald Trump readies for a tough reelection battle in November, US media reported the two sides are set to meet beginning August 15 to discuss the deal, which calls for China to sharply increase
Washington (AFP) Aug 8, 2020
The United States slapped sanctions Friday on Hong Kong's leader after effectively forcing Chinese internet giants TikTok and WeChat to end all US operations, in a twin diplomatic-commercial offensive set to grow ahead of US elections.
In the toughest US action on Hong Kong since Beijing imposed a security clampdown on the territory, the Treasury Department said it was freezing US assets of
Washington (AFP) Aug 7, 2020
A ban by President Donald Trump's administration on Chinese mobile apps such as TikTok and WeChat risks fragmenting an already fragile global internet and creating an American version of China's "Great Firewall."
Fears about the global internet ecosystem intensified this week with Trump's executive orders banning the popular video app TikTok and Chinese social network WeChat, following a US
Beijing (AFP) Aug 8, 2020
Microsoft, which is in talks to buy part of Chinese video app TikTok, is one of the few US tech titans that have managed to succeed in China.
The software giant has kept its business alive in the country by complying with strict local laws, despite the communist nation's wide-reaching censorship.
Here are some key points about the technology and gaming group's operations in the world's s
Beijing (AFP) Aug 8, 2020
Chinese telecom giant Huawei said production of its most advanced smartphone chips would stop in September due to US sanctions, causing a "huge loss".
Huawei - the world's biggest producer of telecoms networking equipment - has become a pivotal issue in the geopolitical standoff between Beijing and Washington, which claims the firm poses a significant cybersecurity threat.
Huawei CEO Y
Brussels (AFP) Aug 9, 2020
Turkey's resumed search for oil and gas in the eastern Mediterranean is "extremely worrying", the EU said Sunday after Greece and Egypt set up an exclusive economic zone in the region.
"Latest naval mobilisations in eastern Mediterranean... will lead to a greater antagonism and distrust," foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said, calling the development "extremely worrying".
"Maritime bou
Washington DC (SPX) Aug 03, 2020
Researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama have published dramatic maps showing the locations of lightning strikes across the tropics in Global Change Biology. Based on ground and satellite data, they estimate that more than 100 million lighting strikes on land each year will radically alter forests and other ecosystems in the region between the Tropic of Cancer
Kirtland AFB NM (SPX) Aug 07, 2020
The Navigation Technology Satellite - 3 (NTS-3) spacecraft passed Critical Design Review (CDR) on June 25, a major milestone, allowing L3Harris, the prime contractor for the spacecraft, to proceed into fabrication, demonstration, and test.
In partnership with the Space and Missile Systems Center, United States Space Force, and the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, the Air Force Resea
Luxembourg (SPX) Aug 07, 2020
SES, the leader in global content connectivity solutions, has selected U.S.-based United Launch Alliance (ULA) to launch two C-band satellites. This launch is part of the company's accelerated C-band clearing plan to meet the Federal Communications Commission's objectives to roll out 5G services in the United States. ULA's Atlas V rocket will launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida in 2022 and carry
Beijing (XNA) Aug 07, 2020
Designers of China's Beidou Navigation Satellite System will keep upgrading software on Beidou satellites to improve their capabilities and maintain technological advantages, according to a key figure in this program.
Lin Baojun, a chief designer of Beidou's third-generation satellite, said at a news conference in Beijing on Monday that once a satellite is launched, it is virtually impossi
Santa Clara CA (SPX) Aug 07, 2020
Momentus and Lockheed Martin have announced a launch service agreement for a 3U satellite in Lockheed Martin and SERC (Space Engineering Research Center) University of Southern California's (USC) smallsat program. The agreement is for Momentus' Shuttle Service to sun synchronous orbit (SSO) via a February 2021 SpaceX Falcon 9 launch.
The La Jument program includes four nanosatellites, with
Luxembourg (SPX) Aug 07, 2020
SES reports that SpaceX will provide launch capability for up to 3 of its C-band satellites over two launches as part of the company's accelerated C-band clearing plan.
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket will launch two C-band satellites built by Northrop Grumman as well as provide enhanced protection to rapidly launch a contingency satellite from Cape Canaveral, Florida in 2022 allowing SES to meet
Moscow (Sputnik) Aug 07, 2020
By the end of fiscal year 2021, the US Army plans to equip a platoon of modified Stryker armored vehicles with defensive lasers that can shoot down drones as well as missiles and even mortar rounds.
During a webinar hosted by Defense News on Wednesday, Lt. Gen. L. Neil Thurgood, the US Army's director of hypersonics, directed energy, space and rapid acquisition, said a platoon of Strykers
Mountain View CA (SPX) Aug 07, 2020
Exolaunch, a Berlin-based rideshare launch and deployment solutions provider, signed a launch agreement with Swarm Technologies, a Mountain View-based satellite company providing low-cost global connectivity for IoT devices, to launch 24 satellites aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare mission. Under the contract, Exolaunch will provide launch, integration and deployment services to the Swarm satel
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Aug 07, 2020
Insights and technology gleaned from creating a carbon-measuring instrument for Earth climate studies is being leveraged to build another that would remotely profile, for the first time, water vapor up to nine miles above the Martian surface, along with wind speeds and minute particles suspended in the planet's atmosphere.
Scientists Jim Abshire and Scott Guzewich, both at NASA's Goddard S
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Aug 07, 2020
Last week marked the completion of a major milestone on the path to spacecraft assembly, test, and launch operations for NASA's Lucy mission.
The Systems Integration Review ensured segments, components, and subsystems, scientific instrumentation, electrical and communication systems, and navigation systems are on schedule to be integrated into the system. It confirmed that facilities, supp