How Does WhatsApp Make Money? This mini-movie tells the story of WhatsApp, and the insane journey of Brian Acton & Jan Koum. Imagine this: you go for a job at Facebook and get rejected. A few years later, Facebook buy your company for $19 billion dollars. Well, for WhatsApp founders Brian and Jan, that’s exactly what happened. Unfortunately, for WhatsApp's users, the story perhaps doesn� [...]

They might be sleek and shiny, but Apple’s flagship mobile phones just aren’t living up to their flashy label any more, Russia’s most prominent digital entrepreneur has said, blasting the US company for restricting user choice. Pavel Durov, the Russian-born businessman who founded both the Telegram messaging service and the popular VKontakte social network, turned fire on the California [...]

Seven years of negotiations have concluded just days after Brussels and London agreed on a post-Brexit trade deal and ahead of tensions with the incoming Biden administration, according to reports. China and the European Union announced a long-awaited investment deal confirmed by Chinese president Xi Jinping and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, media reported on Wednesd [...]

The sale comes amid tighter restrictions from the United States in May, which blocked the Chinese tech giant's access to software and semiconductors made with US technologies. Ren Zhengfei, founder of Huawei Technologies, said he hoped Honor would become a strong competitor in the smartphone market and even surpass his company in the future, the South China Morning Post reported on Friday [...]

After pandemic-related delays, Russia’s first electric car, called the Zetta, is set to enter serial production in late 2020, the country’s Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov has revealed. The Zetta will roll off the production line in the city of Tolyatti, one of the major centers of Russia's automotive industry. The cars will first be sold on the domestic market, but the initial [...]

China is slowly reorienting its economy "away from North America" and "towards the rest of Asia" as evidenced by the newly finalised Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership that it has signed with 15 fellow Asian countries, covering 2.3 billion people, an economic analyst tells Sputnik. The world's largest trading block, led by China, finalised a new trade agreement on 15 November 202 [...]

Ten members the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and five other Asia-Pacific countries, including regional leader China, have inked the world’s largest free-trade pact that covers nearly a third of global economy. The long-discussed agreement, officially known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), was signed on the sidelines of the annual ASEAN summit on S [...]

Fifteen Asia-Pacific nations including China and Japan plan to sign the world’s biggest free trade deal this weekend. The FTA will cut tariffs, strengthen supply chains with common rules of origin, and codify new e-commerce rules. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is expected to be announced at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit, which Vietnam is [...]

Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has downgraded engine maker Rolls-Royce’s credit rating to junk, citing the disruption caused to global air travel from the coronavirus pandemic. The British company’s rating has been lowered to “BB” from “BBB”, (below investment grade) in response to Rolls-Royce’s worsening near-term prospects as whole fleets of planes remain gro [...]

The US Federal Reserve’s balance sheet could skyrocket to more than $9 trillion by the end of this year, amid massive interventions to shield the economy from the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Financial Times. RT’s Keiser Report looks at the chart, showing that in 2007 there was “barely anything” on the Fed’s balance sheet. “The crisis hit in 2008 and you see the injustice [...]

A top US State Department official has praised Germany for strengthening regulations on Chinese company Huawei. However, Berlin decided against caving into pressure and banning the company outright, reports say. A tour by Keith Krach, US undersecretary of state for economic affairs, is part of repeated attempts by the US to discourage European countries from collaborating with Huawei in the r [...]

In 2013, the former NSA contractor leaked a cache of top secret US intelligence documents revealing a massive surveillance campaign of Americans.  US whistleblower Edward Snowden criticized Amazon after it was reported that Keith Alexander, a former chief of the US National Security Agency (NSA), who held the post when the global surveillance scandal broke out, had joined the e-commerce giant’ [...]

The Arctic Palladium project which involves development of several platinum-group metal deposits on Russia’s Taimyr Peninsula is nearing completion. It is expected to turn Russia into the world’s top producer of platinum metals. The platinum-group metals (PGMs) is a group of six metals: ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium, and platinum. They have similar physical and chemical p [...]

The world's fourth-largest processor company may potentially strike fresh deals with a leading Chinese smartphone company as a trusted supplier amid the ongoing US trade war on China, it was revealed in reports this week. Huawei subsidiary smartphone maker Honor confirmed it would seek to acquire MediaTek 5G processors for upcoming mobile product lines, reports revealed on Thursday. [...]

West Texas Intermediate oil prices have gone negative in a record low for the US benchmark, as the market continues to crater amid the general economic collapse. Vanishing demand and a glut of supply have combined to heavily impact the US benchmark fuel, with prices dropping from $18.27 to close at -$37.63 a barrel on Monday – down over 300 percent from the previous day’s close. It's the first [...]

Russia more than doubled crude oil supplies to the United States and Britain in 2019, data from the Federal Customs Service (FCS) has revealed. A fall in prices for the Russian Urals oil, combined with US sanctions against Venezuela and Iran, were among the reasons for such an increase in purchases. [...]

This week, in defiance of the Trump administration, London formally granted Chinese tech giant Huawei the right to build part of the UK’s 5G mobile internet network, albeit capping its UK market share at 35 percent and restricting involvement to “non-core” infrastructure. The US, which lobbied intensely to block Huawei, expressed disappointment. [...]

For some time now, London has been deciding on whether to allow Chinese tech giant Huawei to participate in a national fifth-generation technology rollout, following calls from Washington to ban the company amid security and intelligence sharing concerns. A final decision is expected to be made soon. The United Kingdom will allow Huawei to supply 5G equipment for its national superfast next-genera [...]

US President Donald Trump complained this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos that the United States has not been “treated fairly” by the World Trade Organization (WTO). Professor Richard Wolff joins Boom Bust to discuss Trump’s comments, and what may be in store for Transatlantic relations. [...]

Three European signatories to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as Iran nuclear deal, initiated the accord's dispute mechanism on 14 January thus threatening to put an end to the agreement's existence following the US withdrawal from it in 2018. German Defence Minister and head of a governing coalition party, the CDU, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer has confirmed that the US indeed thr [...]

In a bid to pressure the UK into barring Huawei from Britain’s 5G rollout, US officials reportedly went as far as to imply that allowing it on the market would be “madness.” The fears were dampened by the UK spy chief, however. The US has upped the rhetorical ante on its largely unfounded claims that Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei will severely compromise a country’s cyber securit [...]

A Japanese businessman known as the Tuna King really goes to great lengths when it comes to giving sushi lovers the “best” bluefin tuna. This year he paid 193.2mn yen ($1.8mn) for one, the second-highest price on record. It is the second year in a row that Kiyoshi Kimura, who heads a popular sushi restaurant chain, was the most successful bidder at the traditional New Year’s auction at Tokyo [...]