Author: Steven Sahiounie

The ban Biden signed into law last year provides limited exceptions for law enforcement, national security and security research purposes. WASHINGTON — The White House is giving all federal agencies 30 days to wipe TikTok off all government devices, as the Chinese-owned social media app comes under increasing scrutiny in Washington over security concerns. The Office of Management and Budget calls the guidance, issued Monday, a “critical step forward in addressing the risks presented by the app to sensitive government data.” Some agencies, including the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and State, already have restrictions in place; the guidance calls on the rest…

Battery recycling company Li-Cycle said Monday it’s secured a conditional $375 million loan from the Department of Energy to develop a recycling facility for key battery materials near Rochester, New York. For lithium-ion batteries specifically, much of the focus has been on mining. While the U.S. has an abundance of lithium, getting it out of the ground is expensive, and projects frequently face local opposition. The price of lithium has eased back from record levels hit earlier this year, but in the last three years prices are still up more than 800%. The rapid appreciation comes as some believe there simply won’t…

The BMW Group on Monday launched a pilot fleet of hydrogen vehicles, with the German automotive giant’s CEO referring to hydrogen as “the missing piece in the jigsaw when it comes to emission-free mobility.” The BMW iX5 Hydrogen, which uses fuel cells sourced from Toyota and has a top speed of more than 112 miles per hour, is being put together at a facility in Munich. The car stores hydrogen in two tanks and can be filled up in three to four minutes. BMW says it has a range of 313 miles in the Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure, or WLTP cycle. It…

Target on Tuesday topped Wall Street’s earnings expectations for the first time in a year, as its holiday-quarter sales rose roughly 1% from the same period a year prior. Still, the big-box retailer gave a conservative full-year outlook, saying customers are tossing fewer discretionary items into their shopping carts. The company said it expects that comparable sales, a key metric that tracks sales at stores open at least 13 months and online, will range from a low single-digit decline to a low single-digit increase for fiscal 2023. Target said it expects full-year earnings per share of between $7.75 to $8.75. That was below…

The UK government has reached agreement with the EU on major changes to the Northern Ireland Protocol. The protocol is the part of the Brexit deal which sets Northern Ireland’s trade rules. It keeps Northern Ireland inside the EU’s single market for goods. That keeps the Irish land border open but means products arriving into Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK are subject to checks and controls. The new deal should reduce the frictions on Great Britain-to-Northern Ireland trade – so what are the major changes? Green lanes and red lanes At the heart of this deal is…

Tesla and Space X chief executive Elon Musk has once again become the world’s wealthiest individual after Tesla’s stock price nearly doubled since the start of 2023, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. Musk is now back on top of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index after slipping to the second spot in late December. As of February 27, the billionaire’s wealth reportedly amounted to $187.1 billion at the close of markets, outstripping the fortune of LVMH’s Bernard Arnault by $1.8 billion. The surge in Musk’s net worth is attributed to the resurgent stock price of his electric car maker Tesla, which has nearly…

The Swiss economy is expected to slow this year but will not slide into a recession, the government said on Tuesday, after it reported zero growth at the end of 2022. “From the current perspective I would not expect a recession,” Eric Scheidegger, the Head of the Economic Policy Directorate at the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, told reporters. He cited the mild winter, which had helped Europe avoid an energy crisis, and recent data on economic activity which he said was encouraging. This article was originally published by reuters.

Economic confidence in Türkiye dropped slightly in February, official data showed Monday, following devastating earthquakes that jolted the country’s southeastern region. The economic confidence index fell 0.3% month-over-month in February to 99.1 points, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said, following a 1.3% increase in January. All sub-indexes posted a decline in the month except for consumer confidence. The construction confidence index slipped 3.6% to 89.8 in the month. The retail trade confidence index dropped 2.4% from January to 123.1 in February, while the services confidence index was down 2.2% to 115.5. The index for the real sector-manufacturing industry-edged down by 1% to…

Economic and political worries spur more exits and fewer new entries. BEIJING — Investment by foreign companies in China tumbled to its lowest level in 18 years in the second half of last year, buffeted by tensions with the U.S., a dimming growth outlook and fears of possible backsliding on economic reforms. Foreign direct investment into China totaled $42.5 billion between July and December 2022, according to an official balance of payments. That constituted a 73% decline on the year, the sharpest drop dating back to data in 1999. Half-year totals had averaged more than $160 billion between late 2020 and early 2022.…

Taiwan’s economic freedom ranking has risen to an all-time high, according to The Heritage Foundation’s 2023 Index of Economic Freedom released on Monday. The index ranks Taiwan No. 4 with an overall economic freedom score of 80.7 and No. 2 out of the 39 economies in the Asia-Pacific region. The region’s average overall economic score is 58.2 while the world’s average is 59.3, or “the lowest it has been over the past two decades,” according to the index’s executive summary. “This year’s Index of Economic Freedom reveals just how fragile the world’s economy has become. The world and America are at a crossroads,” Kevin Roberts,…