The recently signed United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) to replace the old NAFTA deal privileges the American economy and corporations, professor and journalist John Ackerman has told RT’s Keiser Report. Read Full Article at RT.com
Despite the coronavirus epidemic ripping through various sectors of the Chinese economy, including the solar industry, Beijing may still significantly boost the number of solar installations this year. Read Full Article at RT.com
A private company based in the Russian city of Voronezh produces units for Boeing’s Starliner that will allow the spacecraft to get power when docked to the International Space Spaction (ISS). Read Full Article at RT.com
NBCUniversal is in advanced talks to acquire Vudu, the Walmart-owned video service, according to The Wall Street Journal. Though the talks “may not result in a deal,” it sounds like NBCUniversal — part of Comcast, an investor in The Verge’s parent company Vox Media — has a number of ideas for what it would do with Vudu.
“Vudu’s ad-supported service would serve as a complement to Peacock,” which is NBCUniversal’s upcoming, standalone streaming service, according to the Journal. Meanwhile, the digital movie rentals and purchases business would be tied into Fandango. (Did you know the app you might often buy movie tickets with is owned by Comcast? Now you do.) Fandango also operates its own FandangoNOW streaming service, but it doesn’t...
Image: Feature China / Barcroft Media via Getty Images
The tech sector is currently feeling the impact of the coronavirus, with companies closing offices, stores, and factories in China as well as restricting employees from nonessential travels to the country. The closures, which were initially expected to last through the Lunar New Year holiday week in late January, were soon extended to February 10th. Officials in some provinces and districts are now telling companies not to reopen until March 1st.
Multitudes of short- and long-term effects are anticipated, from postponed events to companies potentially missing a holiday launch target due to the nationwide office closures. Here’s a look at how the coronavirus has already affected the industry.
Store closures
Earlier this month, major tech...
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Google is placing new restrictions on which Android apps can track your location in the background, with a new review process that will check whether an app definitely needs access to the data. The changes were announced in a blog post to Android developers earlier this week. Google says that from August 3rd all new Google Play apps that ask for background access will need to pass review, expanding to all existing apps on November 3rd.
Although location tracking is an essential feature for many apps and services, it can be pretty invasive when apps indiscriminately ask for location access. Background tracking is even worse, because it means that you might be completely unaware of which apps on your phone are tracking you at any moment in...
