Bloomberg Singapore’s government has a message for anyone expecting great things following Friday’s surprise growth bounce: don’t hold your breath. The city-state’s economy will still only expand between 1 percent and 3 percent this year, policy makers said after fourth-quarter growth burst in at an annualized 12.3 percent — the fastest pace in more than five years. They had ...
Read More »Trump team sounds out tech firms ahead of cyber order
Bloomberg The Trump administration has quietly consulted technology industry leaders ahead of issuing a delayed executive order on cybersecurity, even as executives have clashed with the White House over policies including the president’s efforts to limit entry to the US. President Donald Trump delayed the signing of a cybersecurity directive that had been planned for January 31 just as ...
Read More »UK unemployment falls as job market nears ‘full capacity’
Bloomberg UK unemployment declined and a measure of the number of people in work rose to a record, pushing the labor market closer to “full capacity,†according to the statistics office. The number of jobless fell 7,000 in the fourth quarter to 1.6 million people, leaving the unemployment rate at 4.8 percent, the lowest in more than a decade. ...
Read More »Accor expands luxury vacation-rental offering
Bloomberg Accor SA, Europe’s biggest hotel operator, is expanding its luxury vacation-rental offering with listings in the Hamptons, Wall Street’s summer playground. The Long Island rentals cost as much as $2 million for the season and are the first launches in the Collections portfolio of Accor’s onefinestay unit, according to a company statement. More sites will be added over ...
Read More »Toll Brothers to pay taxes on Manhattan condos to lure in buyers
Bloomberg Luxury developer Toll Brothers Inc. has a deal for those shopping for a condo in Manhattan: buy something soon, and we’ll pay the taxes on your purchase. The publicly traded homebuilder is offering to pay the city transfer tax and the New York state “mansion tax†— an effective discount totaling almost 2.5 percent — on deals made ...
Read More »Race for home power storage pits UK startup against Tesla
Bloomberg A UK energy-storage startup is aiming to take on Tesla Inc. in the competition to outfit homes with affordable back-up battery power. Powervault Ltd. is preparing to boost production of its lead- and lithium-ion batteries, said Managing Director Joe Warren. The London-based company is targeting sales of 50,000 units a year by 2020, up from about 1,000 this ...
Read More »Mosquito traps go smart
Bloomberg A smart trap for mosquitoes? A new high-tech version is promising to catch the bloodsuckers while letting friendlier insects escape — and even record the exact weather conditions when different species emerge to bite. Whether it really could improve public health is still to be determined. But when the robotic traps were pilot-tested around Houston last summer, they ...
Read More »Microsoft taps health sector with Cloud, AI
Bloomberg Microsoft Corp. is trying again in health care, betting its prowess in cloud services and artificial-intelligence can help it expand in a market that’s been notoriously hard for technology companies. A new initiative called Healthcare NExT will combine work from existing industry players and Microsoft’s Research and AI units to help doctors reduce data entry tasks, triage sick ...
Read More »â€˜Pokemon’ needs permit to enter Milwaukee parks
MILWAUKEE / AP “Pokemon Go†monsters can roam virtually wherever they please, but they’ll need a permit to get into Milwaukee County parks. At the height of the game’s popularity last summer, the large crowds it attracted to one Milwaukee park left county officials at a loss for how to deal with the sudden influx of players and the ...
Read More »Big data helps struggling college students graduate
WASHINGTON / AP Getting through college isn’t easy, and it can be even harder for low-income and first generation students with few support resources. A new tool involving big data can help those at risk. Researchers at Georgia State University spent four years analyzing students’ grades, test scores and other information in order to identify those in potential trouble, ...
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