Author: GT

A Shell logo is displayed on May 03, 2024 in Austin, Texas.Brandon Bell | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesU.S. activist investor Elliott Investment Management has taken a short position against British oil major Shell as part of a global hedging program.The move, which was first reported by British newspaper The Times on Thursday, comes shortly after it emerged Paul Singer’s hedge fund had taken a near 5% stake in Shell’s struggling rival, BP.Elliott is said to have amassed an £850 million ($1.1 billion) bet against Shell, The Times reported, citing filings with the Financial Conduct Authority.The position is reportedly…

A logo hangs on the building of the Beijing branch of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) on December 4, 2020 in Beijing, China.Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty ImagesTaiwan investigators on Friday alleged that Chinese chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Co. (SMIC) illegally recruited high-technology talent.Taiwan’s Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (MIJB) said in a statement that SMIC had used a Samoa-based entity as cover to set up a subsidiary on the island “under the guise of foreign investment” and has been “actively recruiting” talent from Taiwan.CNBC was unable to independently verify the claims and SMIC was not immediately available…

A fledgling open source startup that’s setting out to tackle API sprawl in the GraphQL ecosystem has secured the backing of e-commerce giant eBay. WunderGraph, as the company is called, today said it has raised $7.5 million in a Series A round of funding to “scale its open source GraphQL federation.” Investors include eBay’s VC arm eBay Ventures, Karma Ventures, and Aspenwood Ventures. In addition to investing in the startup, eBay is also serving as a core design partner as WunderGraph has set about building an open source alternative to rival products from GraphQL company, Apollo. “Our investment in WunderGraph’s…

BlackRock has launched its iShares Bitcoin exchange-traded product (ETP) in Europe, marking a significant moment for Bitcoin’s institutional adoption in the region. The product began trading on March 25 on major European exchanges, including Xetra, Euronext Amsterdam, and Euronext Paris. However, analysts believe that the demand for the ETP in Europe will be lower compared to the U.S. market, where BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF has experienced significant inflows. In fact, BlackRock’s U.S. ETF has captured over 50% of the market share for spot Bitcoin ETFs, with its holdings valued at $49 billion as of March 27, 2025. While the…

Meta, X, and Snap are celebrating a new Utah law that will require Apple and Google to take responsibility for verifying users’ ages on their app stores and obtain parental consent for minors. The tech giants have been battling to determine which party should be responsible for age verification on the app stores. Companies like Meta believe the app stores themselves should verify users’ ages because these entities host and distribute the apps. The app stores, however, argue that companies making the apps should bear the responsibility as they’re the ones offering the product to end users. Utah isn’t the…

Over the past five years, shares of Strategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) are up by a whopping 3,000%. It continues to be one of the hottest stocks on the market, with a gain of 80% over the past 12 months. And year to date, it’s up by a robust 15%, despite the broader market’s slide. And the best may be yet to become. That’s because Strategy — until recently known as MicroStrategy — remains resolute in pursuing its Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) buying mission. If the price of Bitcoin goes parabolic, as many expect it to do, then the stock could go parabolic…

The encrypted messaging app Signal is getting some unexpected attention this week. High-ranking officials in the Trump administration, including Vice President J. D. Vance and Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth, communicated the plans for an attack on the Yemeni Houthis via a potentially unauthorized group chat on Signal. However, Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was mistakenly added to the group chat, giving him access to these highly sensitive discussions, which he later published. The Signal app itself did not malfunction or operate in an unintended way. Rather, it is user error to accidentally add a journalist to a chat about U.S.…

Cybercriminals have launched a sophisticated attack campaign leveraging Google’s sponsored search results to target users searching for DeepSeek, the increasingly popular AI platform. The attack uses convincingly crafted fake advertisements that appear at the top of Google search results, mimicking legitimate DeepSeek ads but redirecting victims to malicious websites designed to distribute malware. This campaign represents a growing trend of threat actors exploiting trusted digital advertising platforms to deliver malicious payloads to unsuspecting users. The attack begins when users search for DeepSeek on Google and encounter sponsored results that appear authentic at first glance. The malicious ads direct users to…

EBERSWALDE, Germany (AP) — A company that specializes in early wildfire detection has developed a new, AI-based drone it says will help speed up the detection, location and monitoring of fires.The Silvaguard drone by Dryard Networks was presented Thursday in Eberswalde outside of Berlin as wildfires driven by extreme heat and climate change are becoming a more common, often deadly phenomenon around the globe.The drone will deliver infrared images, among other things, and works in combination with a fire detection system that the company developed earlier and that’s already being used in several countries. The fire detection system, called Silvanet,…

TikTok is set to expand its TikTok Shop e-commerce platform to users in France, Germany, and Italy on Monday, Reuters reports. TikTok Shop has been available in the United Kingdom since 2021, and now the company is ready to expand farther into Europe. While TikTok Shop is also available in the United States and saw strong sales over the holiday season, TikTok’s fate in the country remains uncertain. Reuters states that TikTok has been looking to onboard more Europe-based sellers onto TikTok Shop, as many sellers on the platform sell products directly from China. “In France, Germany, and Italy, we…