Reuters | By: Stephen Nellis | August 29, 2017: SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google on Wednesday unveiled tools to make augmented reality apps for mobile devices using the Android operating system, setting up its latest showdown with Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) iPhone over next-generation smartphone features. Phone-based augmented Read more
Xinhuanet | By: Xiang Bo | August 29, 2017: XI’AN, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) — A resort hotel in Yangling, an agricultural high-tech demonstration zone in northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, has seen its tax drop by 670,000 yuan (about 101,200 U.S. dollars) since May last year. The company’s revenue was 20 Read more
Financial Times | By: Various Authors | August 28, 2017: From 1m in 2013, the number of Chinese in the continent is in decline, analysts say Like dozens of others from his sleepy fishing village on China’s south-east coast, Wen Wenyuan set off a few years ago to start a Read more
Financial Times | By: Various Authors | August 28, 2017: Centuries of centralisation blamed for neglect, rural flight and sense of abandonment In a wave of national solidarity, donations and emergency assistance have been flowing into the scattered hillside communities of central Portugal where devastating forest fires have claimed more Read more
Financial Times | By: Various Authors | August 24, 2017: Unanimous privacy ruling dents government attempts to register country’s 1.3bn people Narendra Modi’s plans to widen the scope of India’s vast biometric identification system have been dealt a blow by judges on the Supreme Court, who have ruled that Indians Read more
Financial Times | By: Various Authors | August 24, 2017: China’s reliance on infrastructure to drive overall investment hit a new high last month, raising worries that Beijing’s intensifying crackdown on local government debt, which mainly finances infrastructure, will drag down overall growth. Fixed-asset investment remains the biggest engine of Read more
The Wall Street Journal | By: Nicole Hong | August 23, 2017: Judges reject former SAC Capital Advisors manager Mathew Martoma’s request for new trial: Prosecutors recovered lost ground in their fight against insider trading with a court decision Wednesday upholding the 2014 conviction of former SAC Capital Advisors LLP Read more
Xinhuanet | July 12, 2017: LHASA, July 12 (Xinhua) — Yandao, 35, had never been to Qinghai-Tibet Plateau before he joined an observation team on China’s second scientific expedition to the plateau in June. Yandao, a member of the Blang ethnic minority, comes from a small village in Xishuangbana, in Read more
Xinhuanet | August 17, 2017: XINING, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) — A living biobank was set up in northwest China’s Qinghai Province on Wednesday. The living biobank is in Dulan County on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The county is home to 43 species of endangered animals including Tibetan antelope, snow leopard and Read more
Xinhuanet | July 27, 2017: SHENZHEN, July 27 (Xinhua) — A total of 155 nature reserves exist on China’s Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, according to figures released at the ongoing 19th International Botanical Congress in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. The reserves cover more than 820,000 square kilometers, 32 percent of Read more
The Hill | By: Michael Delagarza | August 19, 2017: In January, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson announced: “Given the vital role elections play in this country, it is clear that certain systems and assets of election infrastructure meet the definition of critical infrastructure, in fact and in law.” Read more
Renewable Energy World | By: Jess Shankleman | August 14, 2017: Electric car owners are earning as much as $1,530 a year just by parking their vehicle and feeding excess power back into the grid. Trials in Denmark carried out by Nissan Motor Co. and Italy’s biggest utility Enel SpA Read more
CleanTechnica | By: Tobias Engelmeier | August 18, 2017: The global microgrid market is ready for significant private investment. While there remain some challenges – especially around the regulatory framework and aggregation of projects – there are now enough businesses with viable business models to provide early stage, strategic or Read more
Energy Post | By: Geoffrey Styles | August 7, 2017: Bloomberg’s renewable energy affiliate forecasts that wind and solar power will make major inroads into the global market share of natural gas within a decade. This is a crucially important question for major oil companies who are betting their future Read more
Risk.Net | By: Louie Woodall | August 17, 2017: US regulators are raising concerns about the use of machine learning techniques to assess contagion risks in bank model networks. Last year, certain entities supervised by the US Federal Reserve were asked to analyse their aggregate model risk – essentially the interactions and dependencies between various Read more
FirstPost | By: Various Authors | August 17, 2017: Agartala: Due to severe floods in Assam, West Bengal and Bihar, the northeastern region has been cut off by rail from the rest of India for about a week, officials said on Thursday. “As many railway tracks and stations in Assam, North Read more
The Weather Channel | By: Ada Carr | August 16, 2017: Spain’s Tagus River is at risk of drying up completely due to drought and water transfer. The river is subject to a water management plan over a decade old that did not take Spain’s droughts into consideration. The Tagus Read more
Reuters | By: Amantha Perera | August 16, 2017: ADIGAMA, Sri Lanka (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Scorched by a 10-month drought that has killed crops and reduced residents to buying trucked-in water, Adigama’s young people are voting with their feet. At least 150 youth have left this agricultural village 170 Read more
Reuters | August 18, 2017 BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China will strengthen rules to defuse risks for domestic companies investing abroad and curb “irrational” overseas investment in its Belt and Road initiative, the state planner said on Friday. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in an online statement lauding Read more
The FCPA Blog | By: Nick Henderson | August 17, 2017: If an employee or a contractor helps someone evade their taxes, that business can be prosecuted for failing to prevent it happening. The Criminal Finances Act applies to any business either based in the UK, or with a UK Read more
MIT | By: Peter Dizikes | GPE – August 16, 2017: Study: People willing to pay more for running water report much higher levels of happiness when they have it. Originally published January 14, 2013: If you’re reading this, odds are you’ve already used running water in your home today. Read more
MIT | By: Peter Dizikes | August 14, 2017: One drought remedy: Keep infrastructure fast, cheap, and under control. If you live in the developed world, safe water is usually just a faucet-turn away. And yet, global warming, drought conditions, and population growth in coming decades could change that, ushering Read more
Nextgov | By: Joseph Marks | August 14, 2017: The IRS is still failing to adequately protect U.S. taxpayers’ personal information and sensitive financial data, according to an audit report announced Monday. The Government Accountability Office is not releasing the text of the report because it contains either classified or Read more
Defense One | By: Brietta Hague | August 14, 2017: In 1991, Estonia was part of the dying communist empire. Its economy was run by central planners in Moscow, less than half of all households had a phone line, and goods were so scarce that people had to line up Read more
Water Resources Research | By: Various Authors | GPE – August 15, 2017: Dam removal is widely used as an approach for river restoration in the United States. Originally published 31st July 2017: The increase in dam removals—particularly large dams—and associated dam-removal studies over the last few decades motivated a Read more
Defense One | By: Jack Corrigan | August 11, 2017: Foreign and domestic hackers probed hundreds of security holes in critical Air Force networks for weeks in late spring, and the Pentagon knew all about it. But instead of getting punished, the hackers got paid. The Defense Department’s third and Read more
McKinsey & Company | By: Daniel Mikkelsen, Kayvaun Rowshankish, Henning Soller, and Kalin Stamenov | August 2017: Data protection has always been important. Now it’s becoming urgent. Here’s a primer on how companies can adapt to the new rules. Europe is on the brink of a sea change in its Read more
Science Daily | Source: American Chemical Society | August 09, 2017: Lead in drinking water is a decades-old problem and still poses serious public health risks today. In response, utilities are replacing segments of old lead pipes that are causing the contamination. Surprisingly, researchers report that although partial line replacements Read more
The FCPA Blog | August 11, 2017: The five government agencies with the most ongoing FCPA-related investigations as of today, according to FCPA Tracker, are: 1. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission — 79 Investigations 2. U.S. Department of Justice — 77 Investigations 3. UK Serious Fraud Office — 15 Investigations Read more
US News | By: Jovana Gec ~ Associated Press | August 10, 2017: Authorities and experts are warning that extremely hot and dry summer this year in the Balkans has decimated crops, dried rivers and hurt the animal world. Evidence is piling up that this year’s sizzling summer in central Read more
The Wall Street Journal | By: Mark Maremont and Christopher S. Stewart | August 10, 2017: Affidavit alleges American citizen Mohamed Elshinawy was part of a global network stretching from Britain to Bangladesh. U.S. investigators uncovered a global financial network run by a senior Islamic State official that funneled money Read more
Water & Wastewater International | GPE August 10, 2017: BATH, UK – Algae ponds are being used to remove nutrients and treat wastewater in a joint project between the University of Bath and utility Wessex Water. Originally published July 31, 2017: The project is investigating utilising algae ponds to treat Read more
Reuters | August 10, 2017: BEIJING (Reuters) – China has sent an “unbreakable” code from a satellite to the Earth, marking the first time space-to-ground quantum key distribution technology has been realized, state media said on Thursday. China launched the world’s first quantum satellite last August, to help establish “hack Read more
UK Information Commissioner’s Office | By: Elizabeth Denham, Information Commissioner | August 09, 2017 The General Data Protection Regulation comes into force on 25 May 2018. That’s not new news. But it is a fact. It’s also fact that not everything you read or hear about the GDPR is true. Read more
Privacy Laws & Business | August 07, 2017: The Data Protection Bill will implement into UK law the GDPR derogations and the EU Data Protection Law Enforcement Directive, the government announced today. The majority of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provisions will automatically become UK law on 25 Read more
The FCPA Blog | By: Shruti J. Shah | August 09, 2017: Anonymous companies have attracted much attention in the past couple of years, and for good reason. These companies are used to facilitate a number of crimes, including corruption, money laundering and the trafficking of arms, drugs and humans. Read more
The Wall Street Journal | By: Robert McMillan | August 07, 2017: Bill Burr’s 2003 report recommended using numbers, obscure characters and capital letters and updating regularly — he regrets the error. The man who wrote the book on password management has a confession to make: He blew it. Back Read more
Forester Network | By: Margaret Buranen | August 04, 2017: A common purpose runs through many, likely most, stormwater projects in the greater Seattle area and other western Washington cities, certainly in the projects profiled in this story. Their shared goal is to improve and protect water quality in one Read more
The FCPA Blog | By: Steven Smart | August 07, 2017: Halliburton’s recent decision to enter into a $29.2 million settlement with the SEC over alleged FCPA violations in Angola illustrates the challenges faced by corporate compliance officers in designing and implementing an effective FCPA compliance program. Halliburton had a Read more
Reuters | By: Jonathan Saul | August 07, 2017: The risk of cyber attacks targeting ships’ satellite navigation is pushing nations to delve back through history and develop back-up systems with roots in World War Two radio technology. Ships use GPS (Global Positioning System) and other similar devices that rely Read more
The Financial Times | By: Claire Manibog | August 6, 2017: Reckoning continues 10 years after housing downturn became market meltdown. Financial institutions have paid more than $150bn in fines in the US relating to the credit crisis, passing a significant milestone a decade after it became clear American subprime Read more
Photon.info | By: AECEA ~ Panda Green Energy Group Ltd. | August 06, 2017: China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) released official statistics concerning 1H/2017 solar PV deployment and confirmed formerly disclosed information, that during the 1H/2017 in total 24.4 GW were added, representing an increase of 9 percent year-over-year. Out Read more
Lexology.com | By: Bryan Cave LLP | August 02, 2017: Two companies in Singapore, CSE Global and CSE Transtel, agreed to pay the Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) $12,027,066 to settle charges that they violated the Iran Transactions and Sanctions Regulations (“ITSR”). The charges arose from CSE Transtel supplying Read more
Science Daily | By: Kansas State University | August 02, 2017: A comparison of a section of the Arikaree River in northwest Kansas in 2006 on the left and in 1996 on the right shows the decreased water flow. Photos courtesy of Ryan Waters, Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Read more
The Associated Press | ABC News | Aug 03, 2017: The Egyptian government has increased the prices of drinking water and sewage fees up to 50 percent as part of an extensive economic reforms program aimed at closing the budget deficit. The decision reported on Thursday goes into effect in Read more
The Wall Street Journal | By: Robb M. Stewart | Aug. 3, 2017: Australia’s financial-intelligence agency accused the nation’s biggest bank of failings it said may have opened the way for money laundering and financial crime. In a civil suit filed Thursday in the federal court in Sydney, the Australian Read more
Clean Technica | By: Tom Nockolds | August 3rd, 2017: Community energy is a global phenomenon. Wherever we find people, we tend to find communities stepping forward to have a greater say and determination in what their future energy supplies should look like. These people are ensuring that their communities Read more
The Financial Times | August 04, 2017: As you cross the bridge over the Rhine at Leverkusen you notice something strange. This is one of Germany’s most critical transport corridors, near one of its biggest industrial hubs — yet among the thousands of vehicles that use it every day, there Read more
The Financial Times | August 03, 2017: Attackers have cracked some of the most difficult problems for traditional companies. Buried in the avalanche of recent cyber attacks, there is good news and bad. Ransomware attacks, which paralysed many organisations — from parts of the UK’s National Health Service to the Read more
Circle Of Blue | By: Brett Walton | GPE – August 04, 2017: Scientists do not know how much groundwater is left. Originally published June 16, 2015: Population growth and agriculture are putting unsustainable demands on the world’s largest aquifer systems, particularly those in the planet’s dry midsection, according to Read more
Clean Technica | By: Saurabh Mahapatra | August 01, 2017: The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), responsible for conducting wind energy auctions in India, has seen a tremendous response to the latest 1 gigawatt tender. Originally published on CleanTechies: According to media reports, project developers have placed bids to Read more
World Resources Institute | By: Hidayah Hamzah Hidayah Hamzah | GPE – August 02, 2017: Flooding is the tragic norm in Jakarta, a megacity where major floods took 40 lives and cost IDR 32 trillion ($2.4 billion) in 2013. The floods were back early this year, and more are expected. Read more
The Wall Street Journal | By: Jim Carlton | August 1, 2017: The Agua Caliente tribe wants a say in how an aquifer under its Coachella Valley reservation is used. Deep beneath the desert east of Los Angeles is a Southern California treasure: a massive basin filled with fresh water. Read more
Forester Network | By: Laura Sanchez | GPE – August 01, 2017: As utilities across America struggle to afford the repair of aging water infrastructure and climate change impacts water scarcity, the nation’s poor are simultaneously challenged to pay rising water bills. And this ever-expanding economic gap promises to present Read more
Inter Press Service (IPS) | By Daniel Gutman | GPE – August 01, 2017: Hand in hand with UN Environment and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) disembarked in the Argentine capital to prompt this country to adopt and promote the agenda of so-called green Read more
The FCPA Blog | By: Roberto J. Gonzalez and Michael E. Gertzman | August 1, 2017: Last week the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced a $12 million settlement with CSE Global Limited and its subsidiary, CSE TransTel Pte. Ltd., both based in Singapore. TransTel entered into Read more
Reuters | By: Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Anna Irrera | August 1, 2017: Bitcoin’s underlying software code could be split on Tuesday to create a clone called “Bitcoin Cash,” potentially providing a windfall for holders of the digital currency. The initiative is being led by a small group of mostly China-based Read more
Reuters | By: Anne Marie Roantree | August 1, 2017: Hong Kong’s securities regulator has vowed to take action against private equity funds and discretionary accounts involved in “improper activities” amid increased market scrutiny by authorities and investors in the financial hub. The Hong Kong government and regulators are growing Read more