Xiaomi launched its own smart speaker on Wednesday to rival the likes of the Amazon Echo and Apple HomePod but for a fraction of the price. The Mi AI speaker costs 299 yuan ($44) less than the $349 for Apple’s HomePod and $179.99 for the Amazon Echo. It’s a white tall speaker with Xiaomi’s “Mi” […]
Read moreFifteen years ago, on July 26, 2002, Barclays began offering a new way to invest in bonds through a new division called iShares. It was called an exchange-traded fund, or ETF, and even though only four funds were launched that day, it changed the way bonds are traded. Fifteen years later, there are nearly 1,000 […]
Read moreThe crude comeback is far from over, according to Todd Gordon of TradingAnalysis.com. WTI crude oil jumped to a seven-week high on Tuesday following bullish supply news from Saudi Arabia and OPEC. The commodity broke above $48 per barrel for the first time since early June. “The crude oil market looks to have found a […]
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EU executive to start legal action against Poland over judiciary reform
The European Commission said on Wednesday it would start legal action against Poland over a law reforming the judiciary that undermines the independence of judges and therefore breaks EU treaty rules. The Commission also sent Poland a new recommendation under a separate rule-of-law monitoring procedure asking it to address its concerns about several issues questioned […]
Read moreBanking technology firm Cennox has announced a deal to buy the European division of 3SI Security Systems, with a view to expanding its hardware, software and security provision. It follows an international upward trend in consumers making transactions using automated teller machines (ATMs). The acquisition, announced on Wednesday, will mean all of 3SI’s European employees, […]
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FIVE years ago, Mario Draghi, head of the European Central Bank, pledged to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro. At the time, many people were predicting that the euro zone would break up. But Mr Draghi pulled off the trick; no countries have left the single currency. Borrowing costs have come down and […]
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ON JULY 1st Hong Kong marked 20 years of mainland rule with a rare visit from Xi Jinping, the Chinese premier. Mr Xi arrived on an Air China flight from Beijing. The next visit by a Chinese president is unlikely to take place until 2022, when Hong Kong will be half way through its 50-year […]
Read moreBillionaire Elon Musk has revealed the next step for his Boring Company tunneling start-up: an elevator. Musk, who is also the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, came up with the idea of the Boring Company in December after he tweeted that traffic was driving him “nuts”. His vision is to build a series of tunnels […]
Read moreJerome Dubois and Rylan Hamilton were two executives at Kiva Systems, a robotics company that Amazon bought for $775 million in 2012. Within a couple of years of that deal, Amazon took the Kiva robots off the market, rebranded the division as Amazon Robotics, and wielded a big competitive advantage over other logistics businesses and […]
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UK economy expands 0.3 percent in second quarter, meets estimate, sterling slips
The U.K. economy grew 0.3 percent in the second-quarter of this year, in line with expectations. However, the Office for National Statistics noted a “notable slowdown” in the first half of 2017. The U.K. had grown at a pace of 0.2 percent in the first quarter of this year. The slight uptick in the British […]
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