An inflatable module that may one day replace the International Space Station (ISS) has blown up. For the fifth time. But don’t worry, it was intentional. All five explosions were carried out by Sierra Space, a commercial company which hopes the module will form part of the Orbital Reef space station, a venture led by Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin. It has been labelled a ‘mixed-use business park in space’. In 2031, the much-loved ISS will be retired and brought crashing back to Earth, splashing into the Pacific in a region known as Point Nemo, or the Oceanic Pole of Inaccessibility. Sitting between New Zealand and South America,…
Author: LMD International
KEY POINTS BEIJING — U.S. chipmaker Nvidia this week soundly beat analysts’ expectations for major revenue lines — except in automotive — as Chinese demand for electric cars moderates. The automotive segment primarily sells chip systems for assisted driving. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang touted it last year as the company’s “next billion-dollar business.” But the unit’s growth has slowed this year. Huang didn’t repeat such projections in the latest earnings call. In the three months ended July 30, automotive revenue fell by 15% from the prior quarter — the first sequential decline in more than a year. The sequential decrease primarily reflects lower overall…
Featuring a look ahead to forthcoming editions of the competition where the rules are made up and the points don’t matter ESPNcricinfo – 19 September, 2023 The Asia Cup, which is the world’s premier cricketing tournament for countries that tell their friends they hate each other but constantly send each other “U up?” texts, has finally ended. As is standard for situationships of this nature, nobody is really fully happy with how it all went down. So let’s debrief. I guess. Oh god. RULES FOR THE NEXT JAYSIA* CUP For several tournament cycles, the ICC has unashamedly put India and…
A protracted heatwave crawling across much of Europe has brought scorching temperatures to France
The Asia Cup final featured a display of high-intensity, wicket-seeking new-ball bowling from India, with spot-on execution to boot Fifth ball of his second over, Mohammed Siraj is flying down the field. He is racing away from the pitch, in white hot pursuit of one of the handful of shots a Sri Lanka batter middled. Dhananjaya de Silva has only check-driven a fullish ball on the stumps, without much of a backlift, so there’s limited power in the shot. In normal circumstances, this would be stopped by the fielder at mid-on, and this would have yielded one run at most. These are not normal…
It’s the differences between the two Asia Cup finalists that make for a fascinating game ESPNcricinfo – 16 September, 2023 Ahead of the Asia Cup final, the India side is like a Japanese gyuto chef’s knife: comprised of layers of high-carbon steel, and forged with precision. Both the raw materials used and the processes that have tempered them are world-class. Perhaps some final honing remains. But India are effective, balanced, and often beautiful to behold. Sri Lanka, meanwhile, are the beaten up cast iron pot that’s been passed down through the family for generations. There is joy in their work,…
The airline is expanding its presence across the country by adding more flights at various hubs and also new routes. Travel + Leisure – September 14, 2023 German airline Lufthansa is expanding its presence in the United States, adding new flights and new cities to its robust lineup of international flights. The airline will add flights from both North Carolina’s Raleigh-Durham and from Minneapolis next summer, Lufthansa shared with Travel + Leisure. With the addition of the new cities, Lufthansa will now fly to 27 different cities in the U.S. “Lufthansa Group’s mission is to connect people, cultures and economies from…
If passed, the law will ban generic claims — from “environmentally-friendly” and “eco” to “natural” and “biodegradable” — from being made without evidence. This is a much-needed step in the right direction, Ana Birliga Sutherland writes. Regulators are finally cracking down on advertisers making false green claims, in a series of moves dubbed the end of the “greenwashing era”. These claims — from the vague (“all natural”) to the hard-to-verify and seemingly omnipresent (“carbon neutral”)—often mislead increasingly climate-conscious consumers. The desire for more environmentally friendly goods is growing rapidly, with nearly 90% of Gen X consumers willing to spend more…
Theo Maret is a research analyst at Global Sovereign Advisory and writes a sovereign debt newsletter. Brad Setser is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former Treasury Department official. Sri Lanka is bankrupt and restructuring its debts. But there’s a high risk that this restructuring will not be thorough enough, leaving the country with a festering problem that will probably just lead to another default. And to a large extent, this is a result of the IMF’s bizarrely puny targets. The IMF argues that Sri Lanka’s debt will be sustainable if the country gets its…
About G20 The G20, or Group of Twenty, is a forum consisting of 19 countries and the European Union. It is an international platform established to promote cooperation and dialogue among the world’s most powerful economies. The member countries of the G20 account for two-thirds of the world’s population and 85 per cent of the global GDP. Inception of G20 The G20 was first established in 1999, and since then, it has become one of the most important platforms for international cooperation on global economic and financial issues. Over the years, the G20 has expanded its areas of focus to…