The Chinese government is planning to break up Ant Group’s Alipay and create a separate app for the fintech giant’s loans business, according to media reports.
Regulators previously ordered Ant Group to split the business of AliPay from lending businesses Huabei and Jiebei. Boom Bust’s Christy Ai and Ben Swann weigh in on the latest measures from the world’s second-largest economy.
The price of natural gas on the European market has been skyrocketing, hitting yet another record in Tuesday trading, according to the ICE exchange.
The price of the October futures on the TTF hub in the Netherlands on September 14 surpassed $800 per 1,000 cubic meters, or 65.50 euro per megawatt-hour in household terms.
Gaining over $70 per 1,000 cubic meters in just one day, the price of gas in Europe is now at its highest in at least the last decade.
Experts interviewed by TASS warned that although the current surge in the commodity price in Europe is abnormal and volatile, new records are more than possible given the low storage volumes and the fast-approaching winter. Gas prices may even reach $1000 per thousand cubic meters, but the situation will depend on a number of factors, including the rising gas price on the market in Asia and the weather, experts note.
Russia could save the day for the European energy market once it launches gas deliveries via the newly completed Nord Stream 2 pipeline, Dmitry Marinchenko, group director for natural resources and commodities at Fitch rating agency told TASS.
“At the moment, the launch of Nord Stream 2 can increase the supply of gas,” he said. And, apparently, the supply increase is needed, as the daily capacity of gas supplies through the two strings of Nord Stream 2 is comparable to the entire volume of liquefied gas that is now supplied to Europe, according to Alexey Grivach, deputy head of Russia’s Energy Security Fund.
Earlier this month, Gazprom said that the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline was fully completed. It is planned to be commissioned by the end of 2021, right after all the required certification is obtained.
While many bitcoin opponents criticize the world’s top cryptocurrency for using ‘more electricity than many countries,’ Max and Stacy look back to what Henry Ford and others said about an energy-backed currency.
They also discuss the problem with using gold when governments control so much of it.
Tech pioneer Steve Wozniak has become the latest newcomer to join the private space business. However, the Apple co-founder’s vision promises to be different than those of billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Richard Branson.
Unlike Bezos and Musk, whose Blue Origin and SpaceX companies plan to set up cities on Mars or build colonies in Earth’s orbit, Wozniak’s Privateer appears to be focused on cleaning up space trash. A recent press release for an unrelated 3D titanium alloy printer described Privateer as a “new satellite company focused on monitoring and cleaning up objects in space.”
In 2019, NASA called low Earth orbit “the world’s largest garbage dump,” with nearly 6,000 tons of waste. The agency has warned that this debris threatens space-goers with garbage moving up to seven times faster than a bullet. Last year, former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine urged Congress to fund a cleanup mission, saying that “Debris is getting worse!”
Called Privateer Space, the “private space company” that Wozniak is launching is “unlike the others,” according to a post by the businessman on Twitter. The company’s mission is to “keep space safe and accessible to all humankind,” says a YouTube promo video that Wozniak linked.
“It’s up to us to work together to do what is right and what is good,” the video says. “So, here’s to taking care of what we have so the next generation can be better together.”
No more details have been provided, aside from the Privateer’s website declaring that “The sky is no longer the limit,” and “We are in stealth mode.” According to the website, more information will be announced at the AMOS Tech 2021 conference, which kicks off on Tuesday in Hawaii.
Known as one of Apple’s founders and the designer of the Apple II computer, Steve Wozniak is widely recognized as one of the prominent pioneers of the personal-computer revolution.
Germany’s federal networks regulator BNA said on Monday it would decide no later than January 8, 2022 whether it will certify Nord Stream 2 and issue an operating license for the natural gas pipeline.
“The Federal Network Agency of Germany announced today that Nord Stream 2 AG has submitted all the documents required for verification by the agency. Thus, the Federal Network Agency has four months to prepare a draft decision and submit it to the European Commission,” the regulator, Bundesnetzagentur, told Russian news outlet Sputnik on Monday.
The documents were received on September 8, so the four-month deadline expires on January 8.
Last Friday, Gazprom said it had completed the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, although gas flows on the controversial Russia-led pipeline cannot begin until Germany grants an operating license to the project.
Earlier last week, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia to Germany was set to be completed within days and come on stream.
But in order to begin shipping gas to Germany, Nord Stream 2 will need the go-ahead from the German regulator via an operational license.
Last month, a German court ruled that Nord Stream 2 will have to obey European Union regulations that separate owners of the pipelines from suppliers of gas, dealing a blow to Gazprom, who sought to have EU rules waived for the controversial pipeline.
Nord Stream 2 AG, the company behind the pipeline, said on Friday that after the mechanical completion of the construction, “the required pre-commissioning activities will be carried out with the goal to put the pipeline into operation before the end of this year.”
Gazprom hopes to start gas flows via the first leg of the pipeline as early as October 1, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing sources with direct knowledge of the Russian gas giant’s plans.
