Bloomberg New York’s city council dealt a political blow to Uber Technologies Inc. and other app-based car-for-hire companies by approving a one-year industry wide cap on new licenses and giving the city Taxi & Limousine Commission authority to set minimum pay standards for drivers. The passage of sweeping industry regulations signalled politicians’ changed attitudes towards the so-called gig economy and …

Bloomberg Few corners of the tech industry are as tantalising or complex as quantum computing. For years evangelists have promised machines capable of breaking the most impenetrable coded messages, unlocking the secret properties of the physical world and putting supercomputers to shame. But Rigetti Computing, one of the most prominent and well-funded startups in the field, would just like to …

Bloomberg Fears about global oil supplies have receded after producers pumped more, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), which a month ago warned of a potential shortage. “Concerns about the stability of oil supply have cooled down somewhat, at least for now,” the agency, which advises most of the world’s major economies, said in a monthly report. “We have …

Bloomberg After partnering for nearly three decades at Australia’s oldest liquefied natural gas export plant, Woodside Petroleum Ltd. and Chevron Corp. are competing to shape the next phase of the country’s gas development. Both are vying to build a pipeline from hundreds of kilometers offshore that will allow them to develop their own fields, as well as let third parties …

Bloomberg Jet Airways India Ltd. was once at the forefront of India’s rapidly growing market for air travel, but a challenge from budget carriers and surging fuel prices are backing the airline into a corner. Shares of the carrier, part-owned by Etihad Airways PJSC, plunged 8.5 percent in Mumbai after the company postponed announcing its first-quarter earnings. That’s less than …

Bloomberg Ryanair Holdings Plc’s worsening spat with pilots and cabin crew has created confusion among panicked customers as they race to salvage travel plans disrupted by strikes. Travellers holding tickets from affected airports told of an online race to find alternative journeys with the Irish airline or switch to rival carriers, only to see prices spiralling higher as hundreds of …

Bloomberg The Chinese Communist Party is probing the chairman of the Shanghai Airport Authority for alleged corruption as President Xi Jinping continues his more than five-year-old crackdown on graft. Wu Jianrong, 56, has come under under suspicion of violating party rules and state laws, according to a statement posted on the website of the party’s disciplinary watchdog in Shanghai that …

Bloomberg UK billionaire Mike Ashley swooped in to rescue the House of Fraser Ltd. department-store chain for 90 million pounds ($115 million), staving off collapse for an anchor of the country’s troubled shopping districts. Ashley’s Sports Direct International Plc agreed to acquire the 169-year-old retailer’s UK stores, brand name and inventory. The move came after House of Fraser, which employs …

ABU DHABI / WAM The UAE has been ranked as the largest donor of emergency humanitarian assistance to Yemen in the world for 2018. According to the Financial Tracking Service (FTS), a centralised source of information on humanitarian funding flows, the UAE is also the second-largest source supporting the 2018 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan (YHRP) following the Kingdom of Saudi …

KHARTOUM / WAM Hamad Mohammed Humaid Al Junaibi, UAE Ambassador to Sudan, and Mohammed Ahmed Ali Ibrahim, Sudanese Minister of Minerals, have discussed issues of mutual interest and investment opportunities in the mining sector. In a meeting held at the ministry’s premises in Khartoum, the Sudanese Minister lauded the excellent bilateral relations, welcoming UAE investments in all fields especially in …