1 UK oil sector job losses may reach 120,000 (BBC) The
number of jobs lost as a result of the downturn in the UK oil and gas sector
could top 120,000 by the end of this year, according to a report. Oil & Gas
UK estimated 84,000 jobs linked to the industry went in 2015, with 40,000
losses expected this year.
It said the offshore industry supported 453,000 jobs
at its 2014 peak - either directly, in its supply chain or in trades such as
hotels and taxis. The new figures suggest 330,000 jobs would be supported by
the end of 2016.
The analysis was carried out by marketing services
company Experian. Last week a Bank of Scotland/Lloyds Banking Group survey
suggested that a third of UK oil and gas businesses planned to cut jobs further
during this year. Brent crude is currently trading at about $50 a barrel, less
than half the price it was in 2014 when jobs linked to the sector peaked at
over 450,000.
2 Soros feels Brexit will spell end of EU (Phillip
Inman in The Guardian) Billionaire investor George Soros has warned that a
Brexit vote this month would make the breakup of the EU “almost certain”.
Soros – who shot to fame in 1992 as the man whose
$10bn bet against the pound broke the Bank of England – has switched more of
his fortune into gold as he anticipates possible shockwaves from a leave vote
in the EU referendum. “If Britain leaves, it could unleash a general exodus,
and the disintegration of the European Union will become practically
unavoidable,” he said.
Soros said he was confident that support for Britain
to remain in the EU would rise in the two weeks remaining before the vote, but
in any case there was a good chance the EU will collapse due to the migration
crisis and challenges in Greece.
Soros, who made $1bn when his 1992 currency bet
forced John Major’s government into a humiliating devaluation and led to
sterling dropping out of the exchange rate mechanism, said an EU breakup was
another threat to global stability along with concerns over the Chinese economy
and a Trump presidency.
In recent months the currency speculator has bet
that a devaluation of the Chinese currency, the yuan, was inevitable, earning
himself a rebuke from the Beijing authorities. “China continues to suffer from
capital flight and has been depleting its foreign currency reserves while other
Asian countries have been accumulating foreign currency. China is facing
internal conflict within its political leadership, and this will complicate its
ability to deal with financial issues,” he said.
3 Larry Page and visions of a flying car (Emily
Price in San Francisco Chronicle) In addition to self-driving cars, it looks
like Google’s CEO has interest in flying ones as well. A new report suggests
that Larry Page, CEO of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, has been secretly
funding companies working to create flying vehicles.
According to a Bloomberg report, Page has been
quietly funding Zee.Aero, a company working on an all-electric plane that
functions essentially like a flying car. The company’s headquarters is located
right beside Google’s in Mountain View; however, it denied any ties to the
company.
Now reports suggest that while the company isn’t technically
owned by Google, it is being funded by its CEO. Page has reportedly been
funding the startup since its launch in 2010; however, it did so under the
condition that his involvement not be shared with public.
Reportedly, Page even had his own apartment on the
top floor of the company’s headquarters, at least until that space needed to be
used for Zee.Aero’s operations. Page was referred to by employees as GUS (the
guy upstairs).
Now Zee.Aero employs close to 150 people, and has an
office in Hollister as well as Mountain View, a location it opened in order to
conduct test flights of the vehicle. Page is also reportedly funding another
similar startup called Kitty Hawk, a reference to the location of the Wright
Brothers’ first flight.
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