The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia-based airport ground handling services firm, Saudi Ground Services, has said it plans to implement a blockchain-based document solution that allows it “to issue over 10,000 digital documents annually including licenses.” According to the firm’s Ayman Alghamdi, using this solution allows SGS to not only easily verify documents and licenses but
It came in the dead of night, an earthquake of 7.8 magnitude that hit southeastern Turkey and northern Syria. Its epicentre was close to Gaziantep — Unesco Creative City of Gastronomy, famous for its diverse cuisine and sweet pistachio pastries, home to the world’s largest mosaic museum with a mesmerising collection from the ancient settlement
The US military shot down a “high-altitude object” off the coast of Alaska on Friday, White House spokesman John Kirby said, a week after it downed a Chinese spy balloon that was floating in American airspace. The object, which Kirby said was the “roughly the size of a small car”, passed over land in Alaska
Bitcoin (BTC) price and the wider crypto market corrected at the start of this week, giving back a small portion of the gains accrued in January, but it’s safe to say that the more experienced traders expected some sort of technical correction. What was unexpected was the SEC’s Feb. 9 enforcement against Kraken exchange and
On Feb. 9, 2023, the cryptocurrency community learned of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) crackdown on staking services. The SEC fined Kraken, a cryptocurrency exchange, $30 million for offering an “unregistered offering” related to its U.S. staking service. Digital currency advocates are now debating what constitutes a yield product versus a noncustodial solution
The Ethereum Foundation team announced another milestone on the road to the Shanghai upgrade, with the Shapella fork on the Zhejiang testnet moving into the final pre-launch sequence, according to a blog post on Feb 10. The Shapella transition includes “many features,” and “most importantly to stakers and the consensus-layer, is the enabling of withdrawals,”
Municipals were weaker Friday ahead of next week’s heavier new-issue calendar. U.S. Treasury yields rose and equities were mixed. Triple-A benchmark yields were cut up to five basis points, depending on the scale, while U.S. Treasury yields rose three to eight basis points, pushing the two-year UST above 4.50%. The three-year muni-UST ratio was at
Gillian Keegan, UK education secretary, has signalled she will fight any Home Office attempts to cut migration into Britain by driving away overseas students, saying universities were a “hugely valuable” export success. Keegan, in an interview with the Financial Times, said she wanted to build on the UK’s booming export market in university education, and
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission is ramping up pressure on the crypto sector. On Feb. 9, the SEC reached a $30 million settlement with Kraken over the centralized staking program it offered to its users. The news of the crackdown sent the price of Bitcoin (BTC) to a three-week low as investors became
Debt market specialists have been banging the drum on this for months: bonds are back. Now it appears this message has cut through sufficiently clearly — particularly on corporate bonds — that the popularity of the bet is one of the few things they think could hold the asset class back, at least in the
The American Dream Mall is being sued by a group of junior lenders of private loans that helped finance the construction of the $5 billion shopping complex in New Jersey, according to documents filed on Feb. 7 with the New York State Supreme Court. The lawsuit, Bloomberg Law reported, was brought by SOL-MM III LLC,
The Florida Legislature concluded its special session on Friday and passed new laws that renamed the Reedy Creek Improvement District and put its control in the hands of Gov. Ron DeSantis. The Legislature approved a bill in April to dissolve all independent special districts created before 1968. The bill’s authors and DeSantis made it clear it was intended to punish the
Nearly half of Puerto Rico’s residents will be exempt from paying a proposed charge to support the restructured Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority bonds, the Puerto Rico Oversight Board said. The amended proposed PREPA plan of adjustment, filed Thursday, calls for a monthly fixed $13 fee and a volume-based charge for use up to 500
The City of London will ask its cluster of skyscrapers to dim their lights at night as part of a new strategy to reduce visual pollution and save energy. Property owners across the Square Mile will be asked to switch off unnecessary building lights as part of a proposal by the City of London Corporation
In 2022, the six largest western oil companies made more money than in any year in the history of the industry: over $200bn, largely from pumping and selling the fossil fuels the world must replace to avert the climate crisis. The windfalls that BP, Chevron, Equinor, ExxonMobil, Shell and Total revealed in their end-of-year results
The CEO of crypto exchange Kraken, Jesse Powell, has called on Congress to pass a law to protect the U.S. crypto industry after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) took action against his trading platform over its crypto staking service. Kraken’s CEO Responds to SEC Action Kraken CEO Jesse Powell urged Congress to pass a
By now, the chances of survivors being found under the rubble left by the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria are extremely slim. The death toll has already climbed to 22,000, surpassing that claimed by Turkey’s huge quake in 1999. The human cost will inevitably climb higher still. But aid and attention must now focus
Ukraine has pleaded with its allies for ammunition and artillery “immediately”, warning it is running short of stocks to defend against a new Russian offensive that Kyiv fears is imminent. The demand, by deputy prime minister Olha Stefanishyna, came on a day when Moscow launched ballistic missiles against Ukraine’s infrastructure. It also followed a tour
On Feb. 9, United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Gary Gensler explained why the regulator had cracked down on Kraken cryptocurrency exchange, forcing it to stop its crypto staking program for U.S. clients. This news may have rattled crypto investors and they sold aggressively. Bitcoin (BTC) crashed about 5% on Feb. 9 and several
February has been a rollercoaster ride for cryptocurrency traders, with market volatility leading to high levels of price uncertainty. Following a strong start to the month, bitcoin prices have since plunged, resulting in a current bear run. However, with just over two weeks left of this short month, what else could be in store for
Nevada’s rainy-day fund has soared to $904 million, the highest balance in state history, according to Nevada State Treasurer Zach Conine. The balance grew to this level following the transfer of $516.9 million from the state’s general fund last week, according to a release from the treasurer. The balance is more than double what it