Nixel's blog

                #NIXEL'S Blog China's gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 6.3 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2019 to about 45.09 trillion yuan (roughly 6.55 trillion U.S. dollars), data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Monday. Specifically, the GDP increased 6.4 percent in the first quarter and 6.2 percent in the second quarter year-on-year. NBS spokesperson Mao Shengyong said that the GDP growth of 6.3 percent in the first half year was nothing easy amid domestic downward pressure as well as the slowing of world trade. China has firmly promoted reform and innovation, optimized the business environment and reduced taxes and fees on a large scale to support the market instead of resorting to a massive stimulus. In terms of industries, the added value of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries reached 2.320 trillion yuan, 17.998 trillion yuan and 24.774 trillion yuan, up 3.0, 5.8 and 7.0 perc...

India on Monday dramatically scrapped the launch of a rocket that was aiming to land a probe on the Moon less than one hour before blast-off because of a "technical" problem. India wants the Chandrayaan-2 - or Moon Chariot 2 - mission to make it only the fourth country after Russia, the United States and China to land a craft on the lunar surface. Countdown at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre was halted 56 minutes and 24 seconds before the planned liftoff at 2:51 am (2121 GMT Sunday). "A technical snag was observed in launch vehicle system at T-56 minute," the India Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said on Twitter. "As a measure of abundant precaution, #Chandrayaan2 launch has been called off for today. Revised launch date will be announced later." Screenshot from Twitter Officials at the space centre on an island off the coast of Andhra Pradesh state said the problem was in the launch vehicle system. ISRO announced on...

                     #NIXEL'S Blog As the China-U.S. trade conflict turns into a competition over tech supremacy, the industry is laying bare how the supply chains of companies on both sides and their investments are interdependent.  The U.S. restrictions on Huawei have hit the Chinese telecom giant and its U.S. employees hard, as it plans to lay off about 850 people in its research labs across the United States. The urgency to maintain global cooperation was further demonstrated by U.S. chipmakers intensively lobbying President Donald Trump to get the ban revoked, asserting that sanctions would make U.S. companies seem like unreliable partners.  The Semiconductor Industry Association, a trade group representing chipmakers such as Intel and Qualcomm, had sent a letter to Trump stating that the sanctions could hurt the U.S.’ economic and national security as China can just source much of the tech components from chip...

                             #NIXEL'S Blog Boeing 737 MAX planes still fail to get the nod of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to resume operation, given the extended time for fixing software problems and completing other steps. Several government and industry officials said that Boeing still needs to respond to all the safety concerns raised by U.S. regulators. Boeing 737 MAX is now expected to be operating again by January 2020, the  Wall Street Journal  reported Sunday. Boeing leaders and international aviation regulators have been analyzing issues covering emergency recovery procedures and some suspect electronic components. Some of those assessments are further complicated because they also include earlier 737 models, according to the Wall Street Journal. Meanwhile, the American Airlines Group said Sunday that it will keep the MAX planes off its schedule until this November, wh...

                                   #NIXEL's blog 00:20 French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday announced the creation of a new national military space force command that will eventually be part of his country's air force. The declaration, made on the eve of France's Bastille Day national celebrations that feature a military parade down the Champs-Elysees in Paris, mirrors an initiative in the U.S. championed by President Donald Trump. "To assure the development and the reinforcement of our capacities in space, a high command for space will be created in September," Macron told military brass gathered for a traditional pre-Bastille Day reception. He called the renewed military focus on space a "true national security issue." "The new spatial and military doctrine that has been proposed to me by the (defense) ministry, which I have approved, will allow us to ensu...