Apple’s Next Huge Project Has Been Delayed - Fortune

Apple’s Next Huge Project Has Been Delayed Posted: 22 Jul 2016 06:27 AM PDT The Apple Car doesn’t even technically exist, but it’s already been delayed, according to a new report. In a look at brothers working on Apple’s ultra-secret car project said to be called Project Titan, technology site The Information revealed that Apple has delayed its vehicle to 2021. Several rumors have claimed Apple had planned a 2020 launch for Apple Car, but The Information’s sources say that the project has “run into challenges,” and that a person who had worked on the Project Titan team confirmed Apple has pushed back its target launch from 2020 to 2021. Over the last couple of years, reports have surfaced saying Apple is working on an electric car that could come with self-driving features. While the company itself hasn’t acknowledged those claims, Apple CEO Tim Cook has been coy when talk of an Apple Car has popped up, leaks have come fast and furious from the Project Titan team, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has described Apple’s car project as the “worst-kept secret” in Silicon Valley. He’s even called Apple “Tesla’s Graveyard,” a place where Tesla engineers go when they can’t hack it at Musk’s company. Analysts, too, have chimed in, saying that Apple, which experienced its first revenue decline since the iPhone’s launch in 2007 last quarter, is in need of a major new innovation. A car, they suggest, would fit that mold. However, developing a car is much different than making a new smartphone or computer, and it’s an entirely new industry for Apple. The company has reportedly hired a countless number of engineers with experience in vehicle technology and its chief of design, Jony Ive, has reportedly been doing research on car design. That all comes before Apple bundles electric vehicle technology, safety standards, and all the other features required to get a car on the road. Indeed, some that have worked in the automotive industry for years have criticized Apple’s idea. Last year, former General Motors CEO Dan Akerson said Apple shouldn’t even build a cardue to high costs and low returns. Another former GM executive, Bob Lutz, told CNBC in September that Apple is looking down the barrel of a “gigantic money pit.” “Apple has no experience,” Lutz said. “There’s no reason to assume Apple will do a better job than General Motors,Ford, Volkswagen, Toyota or Hyundai. I think this is going to be a gigantic money pit.” Regardless, if The Information’s sources are right, Apple is still moving ahead with the car. It just might not reach the roads nearly as soon as some, including Apple, might have liked. Apple declined Fortune’s request for comment on The Information’s story. This article originally appeared on Fortune.com

IMF Head Calls for Quick End to Brexit Uncertainty - TIME Business

IMF Head Calls for Quick End to Brexit Uncertainty Posted: 22 Jul 2016 12:27 AM PDT BEIJING (AP) — The head of the International Monetary Fund called Friday for quick action to end uncertainty over Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, which she said is dampening global economic growth. The IMF cut this year’s global growth forecast by 0.1 percentage points to 3.1 percent in a report released this week due to the shockwaves of the British vote, said Christine Lagarde. Lagarde spoke after meeting with the Chinese premier, Li Keqiang, and leaders of the World Bank, the World Trade Organization and other bodies ahead of this weekend’s gathering of finance officials of the Group of 20 major economies. “Our first and immediate recommendation is for this uncertainty surrounding the terms of Brexit to be removed as quickly as possible so that we know the terms of trade and the ways in which the United Kingdom will continue to operate in the global economy,” said Lagarde at a news conference. Lagarde said that before the British vote, the IMF had been preparing to raise its global growth forecast by 0.1 percentage points due to improvement in Japan, China and the 17-country euro zone. “Unfortunately, the United Kingdom decided to go for Brexit,” said Lagarde, a former French finance minister. “This is disappointing.” Investors are watching the G20 meeting for any sign the United States, Germany, China and other major economies may agree on joint action to accelerate a weak global economic recovery. A similar meeting in February in Shanghai ended with a joint statement that said coordinated action was impossible because major countries were at different points in their economic cycles. Some investors believe envoys in Shanghai agreed secretly to weaken the dollar to spur trade but there has been no official confirmation of that. The final statement from this weekend’s gathering in Chengdu in China’s southwest “will be under scanner for any hints of policy coordination — monetary or fiscal,” Citigroup economists said in a report. U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, speaking to reporters in Athens before flying to China, downplayed the likelihood of joint action. “I don’t think this is a moment that calls for the kind of coordinated action that occurred during the Great Recession in 2008 and 2009,” said Lew. “It really is a moment where we each need to do what we can to ensure that where growth is soft it gets stronger and that prospects for the medium- and long-term are improved.” Lew appealed for close integration of Britain and the EU in the event of a split. “The best outcome is one that maximizes the integration of the UK and Europe and — because it’s likely to be a process that, at best, goes well beyond weeks or months — to have the nature of the discussion to be characterized by amicable, pragmatic engagement where the focus is on maximizing integration and cooperation.”

Munich shooting and right wing extremism - Independent

Everyone must read this post about the Munich shooting and right-wing extremism

Germany is struggling to heal following the tragic events in Munich on Friday which saw nine people killed and 27 more injured after an 18-year-old went on a shooting spree.

Ali David Sonboly had allegedly opened fire at a McDonald’s restaurant in the city on the five year anniversary of the Anders Behring Breivik Norway massacre which killed 77 mostly young people, and injured over 200. 

Sonboly, who was born in Germany and is of Iranian descent, had reportedly been fascinated by shooting sprees, including that of the right-wing extremist Breivik. 

Robert Fisk, writing for the Independent, was quick to point out a double-standard with the way terror attacks are reported:

When first we heard that three armed men had gone on a 'shooting spree' in Munich, the German cops and the lads and lassies of the BBC, CNN and Fox News fingered the 'terror' lever. The Munich constabulary, we were informed, feared this was a 'terrorist act'. The local police, the BBC told us, were engaged in an 'anti-terror manhunt.'

However Sonboly doesn’t have any connections to Isis, and despite a witness claiming they heard him shout “Allahu Akhbar”, the overwhelming body of evidence suggests he had shouted insults to foreigners. 

The shooting challenges the idea that only Muslims can be 'radicalised'. 

Academic, journalist and editor-in-chief of Ajam Media Collective Alex Shams wrote the following Facebook post exploring Iranian identity and the prevailing concept of whiteness as a mark of superiority in response to the attack: