Nordstrom jumps +20% pre-mkt up to the $48 vicinity on headlines of possibly pursing "going private."
iOS 11 gives users tighter control over when apps can use their location
Apple is giving users the option to enable much stricter location rules with iOS 11, according to MacRumors. The company began this effort last year by adding a new option to iOS 10 that grants apps access to your location only while they’re actively being used. But this “while in use” setting is up to developers to actually enable.
The vast majority of popular apps did integrate that new feature. Others, however — Uber chief among them — still force iPhone users to choose between always or never providing location data. The latter choice breaks the functionality of an app like Uber, leaving customers with really only one option. Apple seems poised to eliminate this false choice in iOS 11 by making the “while in use” restriction available for every app.
Uber tracks a user’s location “from the time of trip request through five minutes after the trip ends, including when the app is in the background.” The company reasons that this is necessary to provide optimal accuracy and customer service. Users weren’t thrilled about the frequent tracking, especially after it was discovered that the app was sometimes requesting location data long after a ride had ended; the company eventually claimed this was due to the optional extension that lets users hail a ride with Apple’s default Maps app.
In April, The New York Times reported on a tense conversation between Apple CEO Tim Cook and Uber’s Travis Kalanick, during which Cook scolded the chief executive and threatened to remove Uber from the App Store for violating Apple’s developer guidelines. That dustup was eventually settled, but Apple’s tightening of location access can easily be read as a reaction to Uber’s tactics.
EArly premarket gappers
Gapping up:
- INSG +37.8%, DRWI +27.9%, MIND +21.7%, VSTM +9%, YHOO +8.6%, SCLN +8.4%, FCEL+7.4%, OKTA +7.2%, INO +6.2%, MOSY +5.4%, JD +4.4%, AGX +4.1%, ONVO +3.9%, AMD+3.4%, SSTI +2.9%, NVDA +2.9%, NEPT +2.7%, MOMO +2.6%, CVNA +2.2%, VRNT +2.1%,ABM +1.7%, BIDU +1.5%, RGNX +1.3%, TPX +1.2%, LUV +1.1%, MYL +1%, SJM +1%, TLRD+0.8%, SNAP +0.6%
Gapping down:
- USDP -10.5%, CGG -10.5%, DTEA -8.9%, GEF -8.7%, MZOR -7.2%, URBN -6.7%, JUNO -6.0%, MSL -6.0%, CMTL -5%, MTN -3.9%, RGSE -3.4%, CORT -2.0%, BKCC -1.6%, GOLD -1.6%, DECK -1.4%, APOP -1.3%, CAA -1
Hitachi to seek active European elevator company M&A opportunities, says executive
Hitachi [TYO:6501] plans to pick up the pace on seeking M&A deals in Europe, targeting companies engaged in the elevator-related business, after the acquisition of UK-based elevator company Temple Lifts announced in April, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported on its website.
The Japanese company ranks No. 5 among global elevator companies, and plans to extend its elevator business worldwide to gain more world market share through acquisitions, the newspaper report said, citing Hiroshi Sato, Hitachi's senior vice president and executive officer.
The plan was disclosed by Sato today as he talked in a meeting with analysts and investors in Tokyo, according to the report.
Sato plans to increase annual revenue at Hitachi's building systems business unit, a division including the elevator business, to at least JPY 800bn (USD 7.2bn) in the year ending March 2022, an increase of almost 40% from the year ended March 2017, the newspaper report said.
The company is now considering several acquisitions of European companies with a deal size of about JPY 10bn each, the report added.
Aker Solutions possible target for WorleyParsons
Aker Solutions, the Norwegian offshore services company, may have attracted the interest of Australian WorleyParsons, according to Upstream.
The oil and gas industry publication reported, citing unnamed sources, that Aker Solutions and WorleyParsons have been in contact while American Halliburton seems to have lost interest in the Norwegian company.
Aker Solutions reported sales of NOK 5.2bn (EUR 547m) during the first quarter of this year.
Scientists Find Oldest Known Specimens of the Human Species
Remains found in Morocco date from about 300,000 years ago, about 100,000 older than any other fossils of Homo sapiens
The bones of ancient hunters unearthed in Morocco are the oldest known specimens of the human species, potentially pushing back the clock on the origin of modern Homo sapiens, scientists announced Wednesday.
Found among stone tools and the ashes of ancient campfires, the remains date from about 300,000 years ago, a time when the Sahara was green and several early human species roamed the world, the scientists said. That makes them about 100,000 years older than any other fossils of Homo sapiens—the species to which all people today belong.
“These dates were a big wow,” said anthropologist Jean-Jacques Hublin at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Leipzig, Germany. He led an international team of scientists who reported the discovery Wednesday in Nature. “This material represents the very roots of our species—the very oldest Homo sapiens found in Africa or anywhere.”
Until now, most researchers believed that modern humankind emerged gradually from a population centered in East Africa around 200,000 years ago. Previous discoveries of early Homo sapiens fossils have been concentrated at sites in Ethiopia.
The fossil discovery at Jebel Irhoud near Marrakesh in North Africa, however, suggests that early humans had already spread across most of Africa by then.
“What’s really neat about this discovery is that you now have evidence of modern Homo sapiens across Africa, about as far from sites in East Africa as you can get,” said anthropologist Bernard Wood at George Washington University’s Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, who wasn’t involved in the find.
As early experiments in the human form, these ancestors had quite modern-looking facial features, but relatively primitive skulls, suggesting that the cognitive capacities of modern brains had yet to take shape, the scientists said.
Their faces were likely so contemporary in appearance that they might pass unnoticed on a crowded city sidewalk, although they might need to wear a hat to disguise their skull’s elongated shape, Dr. Hublin said.
Such combinations of traits, though, blur the differences that distinguish one human ancestor from another, making it hard for scholars to classify species accurately. In fact, several early human species, such as Neanderthals, were so closely related to Homo sapiens that they could all interbreed, modern genetic evidence shows.
But several independent experts said they agreed that the fossils most likely belonged to Homo sapiens.
“It has a modern face and a primitive brain case,” said John Fleagle, an expert on primate evolution at Stony Brook School of Medicine, who wasn’t part of the research group. “You would expect it to have a few primitive characteristics even if it is on the main line of our lineage. It shows what is probably an earlier stage of our species.”
The scientists found bones of three adults, a teenager and a child mixed in with sharpened flint tools and the butchered bones of gazelles and zebra, suggesting that a hunting party had camped there. Fires had scorched the tools and that proved key to determining the age of the find.
The researchers tested the tools using a technique called thermoluminescence dating, which reveals how much time has elapsed since an object has been heated. By that measure, they calculated that the tools were 315,000 years old, plus or minus 34,000 years.
They also dated tooth enamel from a fossil jaw using electron spin resonance, which can measure the residual radiation that has built up since a material formed. That yielded an age of 286,000 years, plus or minus 32,000 years, the scientists said.
“It leads us to conclude that 300,000 years old is the best age for these fossils,” said Daniel Richter at the Max Planck Institute, who conducted the dating studies.
Yesterday's news that Saudi Arabia has issued an ultimatum to Qatar, listing ten demands among which that Qatar end all ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, has prompted a dramatic response by the small Gulf nation, and according to a just released report by Arabic CNN (and confirmed locally) US officials have said they have observed increased Qatari military activity as the country placed its forces "on the highest state of alert" over fears of an imminent military incursion.
The sources add that the Qatari military has brought up 16 Leopard tanks out of storage in Doha in preparation for a potential military incursion by surrounding Gulf states. Furthermore, the Qatari Ministry of Defense reportedly also sent a letter to Saudi, UAE and Bahraini governments, saying they would fire on any naval ships from those countries that enter into its waters, a US official said. US officials have said the situation in Qatar has not affected US military operations and security in Qatar.
The escalation comes at the same time as president Donald Trump allegedly changed course on Qatar, a day after praising a move by other Gulf nations to sever diplomatic relations with Doha, which hosts a US military base crucial to the fight against ISIS. CNN reports that in a phone call with the Qatari Emir, Trump "extended an olive branch," offering to help the parties resolve their differences by inviting them to a White House meeting if necessary.
In a description of the Wednesday call, the White House said Trump "emphasized the importance of all countries in the region working together to prevent the financing of terrorist organizations and stop the promotion of extremist ideology."
Trump's latest flip flop echoed that of his secretaries of Defense and State, who emphasized Tuesday the need for Gulf unity and the importance of the US partnership with Qatar, home to the Al Udeid Air Base, the main regional center for air missions against ISIS.
Separately, the WSJ validated yesterday's reports about a Saudi ultimatum, reporting late on Wednesday that leading Arab states are drawing up a list of demands that Qatar must meet to return to normal diplomatic and economic relations, including steps to significantly scale back the Al Jazeera media network. Oddly enough, there was no mention of "Russian hackers."
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and their allies are also seeking guarantees that Qatar’s government will stop its alleged financing of Middle East extremist groups and sever relations with the political leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood, a global Islamist movement, according to these officials.
Senior U.S. officials said Mr. Trump told the Arab monarchs he is prepared to mediate the dispute between the Arab states, some of whom host major American military installations. But the Trump administration stressed it needed a clear list of grievances to pass on to Qatar’s leadership, and that Washington wouldn’t necessarily endorse them.These Arab and U.S. officials said this official list of demands is being compiled and could be completed in the coming days. Qatar’s ambassador to Washington, Meshal bin Hamad Al Thani, said in an interview on Wednesday that his government still didn’t know the specifics behind these Arab states’ decision to sever ties. He stressed that Doha is open to the Trump administration trying to mediate a diplomatic resolution.“Until now, there have been no clear requests,” said Mr. Al Thani, a member of Qatar’s ruling family. “We are working toward de-escalation.” Saudi and Emirati officials have publicly accused Qatar of channeling funds to al Qaeda-linked groups in Syria and Yemen and providing a diplomatic safe-haven for the Muslim Brotherhood. Ambassador Al Thani denied Qatar knowingly has provided funding to any terrorist organizations. He said Doha is willing to take additional actions.
The reports come hours after Turkey, a government friendly to Qatar, approved a bill allowing expedited troop deployment to its base in Qatar. As reported earlier, the bill's passage would allow Turkish troops to be deployed in Qatar and approve an accord between the two countries on military training cooperation.
* * *
As we reported last night, speaking to Al Jazeera, analyst Giorgio Cafiero of Gulf State Analytics, a geopolitical risk consultancy based in Washington, DC, said: "I think the Kuwaitis as well as Omanis ... fear the prospects of these tensions escalating in ways which could undermine the interest of all six members of the GCC.
"There are many analysts who believe that a potential break-up of the GCC has to be considered right now. If these countries fail to resolve their issues and such tensions reaches new heights, we have to be very open to the possibility of these six Arab countries no longer being able to unite under the banner of one council," said Cafiero.He added that if tension escalates, there could be a "military confrontation".
It is this contingency that Qatar is now preparing for.