The Big Stories of July 2016

Welcome to the second half of the year featuring terrorist attacks, sporting scandals and more to round off the big stories of July 2016.

Headline News

We begin again with brutality in the form of mass murder when a deranged terrorist drove a truck through a crowd of people in Nice, France killing innocent people along with a hostage situation at a church. But that wasn't all for July with police shootings in the US resulting in protests and attacks on the police themselves and an attempted coup in Turkey fell apart sending the military scrambling for the borders. The month then ended with a young man in Munich going on a shooting spree along with bombings in Baghdad and Germany. And if all the wasn't bad enough the US Election's held Armageddon themed conventions to scare people into voting for them.

Business News

The business world saw Yahoo being sold for a pitiful $5billion for the one time technology giant while Nintendo stocks went on a roller coaster ride with the success of Pokemon Go. Elsewhere Europe tried to tackle the issue of Brexit and VW continued to piece together it's shattered reputation all the while the taxman stood by with his hand stretched out.

Sports News

July was the month of sports with Wimbledon coming to an end with wins from Serena Williams and Andy Murray along with the Euro 2016 which saw Portugal take the title. While some came to an end other events continued with the Tour de France experiencing a bizarre set of accidents while the controversy around the Olympics in Rio continued and doping bans addressed by Russia.

Entertainment News

The entertainment world kicked things off with the BET Awards followed by Emmy nominations. Later celebrities were besieged by nerds at the annual Comic-Con which saw new movies launched and celebrities questioned by fans.

Technology News

Google was back under fire from Europe for various issues while Microsoft joined them on the hot seat for tracking users with Windows 10. Facebook didn't fare much better with law suits from the families of terrorist victims and controversial sales of guns via their platform.

Tech Titan Trauma

This week saw technology titans release their quarterly reports with a few shockers, both good and bad, announced.

The Good

Apple was the shinning light of the weeks earnings reports with a 46% increase in iPhone sales with sales so popular they tied with Samsung selling an estimated 74.5 million phones. Apple's reports were so astronomical they even reached some historic figures. For it's closet mobile competitor it was a mixed bag with Samsung managing to beat gloomy forecasts but with income still falling 36% due to sluggish phone sales.

Amazon wasn't to be outdone posting strong Holiday sales showing a surge of 15% year-on-year and it even managed to post a profit after recent very big, and very public, failures. Facebook saw it's share price rise after better than expected fourth-quarter earnings thanks to advertising while Yahoo saw it's shares rise after it decided to spin off it's shares in Alibaba in a tax free transaction.

The Bad

It wasn't all good news with Microsoft dropping 4% after it released some dreadful numbers thanks to a drop in people upgrading to Windows 10 from Windows XP but also due to upgrades from Windows 7 & 8 to 10 being free. Google didn't fare any better when fourth-quarter sales and profit missed Wall Street estimates due to advertising on mobile taking a knock. The darling of Wall Street, Alibaba, saw it's shares tumble 9% after weaker than expected sales growth was revealed.

The Ugly

Lastly nobody took a bigger knock than IBM who began axing over 100,000 jobs, laying off over 26% of it's global workforce, saying it would begin reorganizing the company with what it termed "Project Chrome".

Need to Know - Hong Kong Protests

This week saw an escalation from protestors in Hong Kong as students, with the support of many in Hong Kong, took to government offices and business districts objecting to political interference.

Students Fight Back

Protests began when mainland China reneged on the political promise made in 1997 often called "one country, two systems" opting instead for a new process requiring a committee to pre-approve candidates for election.

Since then there has been a wave of students occupying areas around government offices and business districts with police responding with tear gas and batons. At one point even school children joined university students to protest with many university students being arrested for occupying government buildings.

Financial and Technological Impact

The protests have had a major impact on business in Hong Kong resulting in banks shutting down offices and with no end in sight many Hong Kong stocks tumbled as markets took a hammering. Retailers suffered when the protests spanned China's Golden week holiday which normally results in an influx of shoppers from mainland China with an estimated loss of $2billion Hong Kong dollars.

As protests grew ugly the authorities blocked Instagram along with censoring of other internet services. However protestors have found ways around the censorship using mesh networks for phone to phone communication bypassing restrictions. The Chinese government has apparently used "main-in-the-middle" attack's on Yahoo allowing officials to snoop on communications along with blocking links. There have also been reports of sophisticated malware spying on protestors using Android and iOS devices.

Responses Near and Far

As protests grow more volatile the world has taken notice with the British government deciding to review it's policy of selling tear gas to Hong Kong after it's use on protestors. The website Occupy Central with Love and Peace (OCLP) was created for the international community to send messages of support to students protesting.

With power slowly slipping away the Chinese-state newspaper threatened protestors calling for them to cease immediately warning the end result would be "disastrous" and accusing the protestors of "blaspheming" the rule of law.

As it stands the current Hong Kong leader Chief Executive Leung has refused to step down but has instead offered to talk to protestors.

Technology Breaking Records & Banks Breaking Rules

This week saw Alibaba file it's long awaited IPO bringing China to the technology forefront. Along with that we have the usual banks behaving badly and technology start-ups shaking things up.

Technology Titans

Alibaba filled it's IPO with a $1 billion fundraising target with more to come later. Alibaba's IPO could be the largest technology IPO in history topping Facebook's debut and has been making ripples across Silicon Valley due to Alibaba's immense reach and scale.

Yahoo, which holds 24% of Alibaba, traded 1% higher after Alibaba's began trading. Yahoo managed to amend it's deal to keep more shares with the original deal requiring Yahoo to sell a specified amount of shares when the IPO was launched.

In other technology stock news Apple's shares topped $600 for the first time in 18 months. Apple is now also the second largest online retailer after Amazon.

Banks behaving badly, again

US Attorney General Eric Holder has warned that no bank is "above the law" amid investigations into tax evasion and money laundering. Credit Suisse Group AG is in talks with the US Justice Department to resolve a tax probe which could cost as much as $1.6 billion.

Banks are also being sued on allegations of fixing the gold price. The suits, filed by hedge funds, private citizens and public investors claim the banks used their position to rig the price of gold to the banks benefit.

Start-ups shaking things up

Airbnb has been under governments scrutiny lately with regulators questioning whether Airbnb hosts paid the relevant taxes and in some cases claim they may be violating New York housing laws.

Ride sharing services like Uber and Lyft have hit a snag with insurers insisting drivers pay commercial insurance to ensure passengers are protected.

Public Relations 101

When teenagers are the voice of reason you know you have to rethink your approach. Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have removed a controversial ingredient from their products after a teenager started a petition online.

Target CEO has resigned after continued fallout from when hackers stole credit cards from 70 million accounts over 5 months ago.

Tech this out

And the year is off with the Tech world showing what it has in store for us this year.

What happens at CES doesn't stay at CES

CES 2014 opened in Las Vegas this week with all the big names in the electronics firms in attendance.

Intel introduced RealSense designed to be a more "natural" human interface. Intel also debuted an SD sized computer which could be used in everyday items.

Samsung and LG wants your home to smarten up a bit trying to connect all your device's. Samsung introduced new smart TV's that are aware of when you are watching them and make suggestions based on viewing habits. Speaking of TV's Roku, the set-top streaming box, broke into the smart TV world when unveiled it's first smart TV .

Google announced the Open Automotive Alliance with Audi, GM, Honda, Hyundai and Nvidia to use android to power your car. But why stop there when you can let the car do all the work and drive you around.

When it came to gadgets Sony introduced the new SmartBand which works with a fitness tracker called Core. Sony clearly wants 4K to be the next big thing with a range of camcorders aimed at 4K. The internet of things took a step in the bizarre with a bluetooth connected toothbrush, presumably to prevent your teeth from turning blue.

Finally, Hollywood director Michael Bay had a mini meltdown and walked off the Samsung stage when the teleprompter went awry. Needs more explosions.

Virtual currencies doing well, virtually

Bitcoin had a bumpy start to the year starting high with the news of new Bitcoin ATM's heading for Hong Kong and Zynga announcing it would accept payment with Bitcoin. However it all went south when China's biggest e-commerce site, Alibaba, banned its sales on the website.

Still in the world of digital currency, Kanye West doesn't find Coinye funny making it that much funnier.

Random bits

It was revealed that users had been exposed to malware from Yahoo's advertising servers.

Eton College banned Snapchat from it's wireless internet system for fears of an outbreak of "sexting".

China finally lifted it's ban on game consoles allowing the heavy weights XBox and PS4 to battle it out in a new arena.

And lastly, sad news, big foot is dead. Apparently a "hunter" in the states shot big foot and is now touring the country with it's remains to prove it. Sorry science.

What Happened? 2013 Business News

The business world had some nervous moments with politicians getting in the way and wars at breaking point but the always innovative tech world made sure money was made.

Tech world keeps ticking

Bitcoin, the infamous decentralized virtual currency, had a bumpy year with wild swings in it's value. Unfortunately it also suffered a dramatic set back when the Chinese government banned it's use.

Twitter finally made it's debut on the stock market with it's IPO. It wasn't all smooth sailing with the stock taking a tumble after a warning it was overvalued.

Amazon had huge sales come Christmas and gained even more attention with it's crazy drone delivery plan.

Apple released the next generation of iPhones instantly invalidating all previous models having their legions of fans waiting in line to upgrade.

Government, can't live with them...

The business world held it's breath as the US edged closer to defaulting on it's obligations. Eventually the US government closed for business when Republicans refused a budget bill in an attempt to delay Obamacare resulting in nation wide shutdown.

After pumping billions into the economy during the recent recession the Fed's tapering had markets a buzz.

The earlier NSA revelations trickled down to business with telecoms giants admitting to their part in providing the government with access to phone records of millions. Even big tech companies had co-operated from Google to Yahoo and Microsoft.

Bad (for) business?

BP has been trying to cut it's losses from it's oil clean up fines requesting proof of losses which was later turned down by the courts.

Sometimes all it takes is one employee to cause headaches, case in point IAC Communications Director Justine Sacco sending a racist tweet before hoping on a plane to Africa. She was later fired.

The big banks paid for their blunders with JP Morgan paying $13billion in fines for it's toxic mortgages part.

A garment factory collapse killing 175 people in Bangladesh and a fire in a 10 story building raised questions about the west's growing desire for cheap goods.