JUST like that, America’s laptop ban is all but over. Four months ago the Trump administration announced that travellers from ten Middle Eastern countries would be barred from taking electronics larger than a mobile phone into plane cabins, citing security concerns. In the past few weeks, the government has been gradually freeing carriers, including Emirates, […]
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Bitcoin miners are signalling their intent to support a new upgrade for the bitcoin blockchain that may solve the digital currency’s long-running scaling issue. Several of the largest bitcoin miners (who create new bitcoins and support the blockchain), including AntPool, BitClub, Bixin, BTC.com and BitFury, have started showing their support for bitcoin improvement proposal (BIP) […]
Read moreQuietly, a fight has bubbled up in the ranks of House Republicans, which could derail the centerpiece of President Donald Trump‘s congressional agenda. The battle is really about tax reform, but its stage is the fiscal year 2018 budget resolution, scheduled for a committee vote this week. Behind it all is a clash between Republican […]
Read moreForeign purchases of U.S. residential real estate surged to the highest level ever in terms of number of homes sold and dollar volume. Foreign buyers closed on $153 billion worth of U.S. residential properties between April 2016 and March 2017, a 49 percent jump from the period a year earlier, according to the National Association […]
Read moreU.S. homebuilders should be feeling pretty good about their business, given the nation’s severe shortage of homes for sale, but a sharp spike in the cost of lumber is weighing heavy on their bottom lines. A monthly index of homebuilder confidence in the single-family market fell 2 points in July to 64 from a downwardly […]
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U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May has told ministers to show “strength and unity”, and to keep details of their discussions private, after reports over the weekend suggested divides over Brexit. One of those reports involved an unnamed minister allegedly accusing U.K. finance minister Philip Hammond of trying to “f— up” the country’s departure from the […]
Read moreThe House Budget Committee on Tuesday unveiled a spending proposal that would boost defense funding but dramatically reshape social welfare programs such as Medicare and food stamps. The fiscal 2018 budget — which the committee said would result in a $9 billion surplus after a decade — reflected compromise between defense hawks and fiscal conservatives, […]
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IT IS a classic traveller’s dilemma: you are waiting in the boarding area for your flight, and an airline employee asks over the loudspeaker if anyone is willing to be bumped in exchange for a voucher. You like the idea of sacrificing the unimportant meeting you were scheduled to attend in return for a few […]
Read moreAirbus says it has successfully tested a new type of jet propelled aircraft that could speed the development of unmanned flight. The European aerospace firm said the unmanned, jet-propelled craft flew by itself for around seven minutes over a test site in Overberg, South Africa. “We are increasingly shifting our focus towards these kinds of […]
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British inflation unexpectedly slowed for the first time since October last month, adding to the likelihood that the Bank of England will keep interest rates at a record low in August. Consumer prices rose by 2.6 percent compared with a year earlier, the Office for National Statistics said on Tuesday, down from a nearly four-year […]
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