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SYDNEY, May 30 (Reuters) - Australia's Treasury department may not renew a A$1 million audit contract with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) when it ends this year, an official told a senate hearing amid a scandal over the firm's misuse of confidential government tax plans. Amid calls to ban the firm from lucrative government contracts, Treasury Secretary Steven Kennedy told senators on Tuesday the breach was "clearly disturbing" and the department would review a PwC audit contract worth almost A$1 million that expires at the end of this year. PwC did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the audit contract. Treasury officials told senators confidentiality agreements had been updated and the department had written to PwC and 25 other firms to ask whether their governance processes were suitable for confidential tax consultations in the wake of the PwC tax leak. Reporting by Lewis Jackson in Sydney; Editing by Sonali PaulOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

[1/2] Trade visitors walk past an advertisement for BAE Systems at Farnborough International Airshow in Farnborough, Britain, July 17, 2018. REUTERS/Toby MelvilleNEW DELHI, May 29 (Reuters) - India has filed a graft case against Britain's BAE Systems plc (BAES.L) and Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.L) for "criminal conspiracy" in the procurement and licensed manufacturing of 123 advanced jet trainers, a federal police document showed. The case is based on the findings of an investigation launched by India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2016, the document dated May 23 said. In its response BAE said it would be inappropriate to comment on an ongoing probe. Between 2008 and 2010, it said the Indian government approved the licensed manufacturing of an additional 57 jets for 95 billion rupees ($1.16 billion) under a separate agreement with BAE Systems (Operations) Ltd.

☆ Kansas farmers abandon wheat fields after extreme drought
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Tom Polansek | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/4] Romulo Lollato, a wheat agronomist for Kansas State University, examines wheat in a field, as part of an annual crop tour, near Clay Center, Kansas, U.S., May 16, 2023. REUTERS/Tom PolansekWICHITA, Kansas, May 22 (Reuters) - Farmers in Kansas, the biggest U.S. producer of wheat used to make bread, are abandoning their crops after a severe drought and damaging cold ravaged farms. Kansas farmers are expected to abandon about 19% of the acres planted last autumn, up from 10% last year and 4% in 2021, according to the report. Soaring prices for hay also pressure wheat farmers not to harvest their fields for grain so they can be fed to cattle, Gilpin said. Kansas farmers are expected to produce just 191.4 million bushels of wheat this year, the smallest since 1963, according to the latest monthly government forecast.

☆ Start-Ups Bring Silicon Valley Ethos to a Lumbering Military-Industrial Complex
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( Eric Lipton | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

While waiting for a decision by the Pentagon, the company recently moved to lay off some employees. Mr. Roper, the former Air Force procurement boss, said another problem is the Defense Department’s historical insistence on creating its own solutions to problems instead of buying new technologies from commercial firms. He noted that artificial intelligence, for example, still has not been integrated into Air Force flight operations beyond some basic experiments. Mr. Austin, the defense secretary, recently announced that the Defense Innovation Unit will report directly to him, supervised by a new recruit from Apple. But for each success, there are many other tech start-ups struggling to pay bills as they wait for the Pentagon to make a purchase decision.

☆ Bezos' Blue Origin wins NASA contract to build astronaut lunar lander
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Joey Roulette | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The Blue Origin contract is valued roughly $3.4 billion, NASA's exploration chief Jim Free said, with Blue Origin privately contributing "well north" of that amount, Blue Origin's lunar lander head John Couluris said. Blue Origin plans to build its 52-foot (16-meter) tall Blue Moon lander in a partnership with Lockheed Martin (LMT.N), Boeing(BA.N), spacecraft software firm Draper, and robotics firm Astrobotic. Friday's announcement in Washington was a long-awaited outcome for Blue Origin, which had unsuccessfully had competed for past contracts. After losing in 2021, Blue Origin unsuccessfully fought to overturn NASA's decision to ignore its Blue Moon lander, first with a watchdog agency and then in court. Blue Origin and lawmakers had pressured NASA to award a second lunar lander contract to promote commercial competition and ensure the agency has a backup ride to the moon.

☆ Royal Philips to Pay $62 Million to Settle China Bribery Probe
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Dylan Tokar | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Philips agreed to settle without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings. Photo: Eva Plevier/REUTERSRoyal Philips , a Dutch medical supply company, has agreed to pay $62 million to resolve claims by regulators that it violated a U.S. antibribery law by improperly manipulating Chinese procurement processes and influencing public officials at Chinese state-run hospitals. The Amsterdam-based company’s conduct in China violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday. The regulator said Philips had agreed to settle its claims without admitting to or denying the findings from its investigation.

☆ Elon Musk subpoena in Epstein-JPMorgan lawsuit can be served to Tesla, judge rules
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Dan Mangan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Ghislaine Maxwell and Elon Musk attend the 2014 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Graydon Carter on March 2, 2014 in West Hollywood, California. The Virgin Islands is suing JPMorgan in U.S. District Court in Manhattan for allegedly enabling and financially benefiting from Epstein's sex trafficking of young women. Rakoff, in his order Wednesday, authorized the USVI to "arrange alternative service of its Subpoena to Produce Documents by serving Elon Musk via service upon Tesla Inc.'s registered agent." A Tesla spokesperson told The Times, "It is incorrect to say that Epstein ever advised Elon on anything." Epstein killed himself in August 2019, a month after federal authorities arrested him on an indictment charging him with child sex trafficking.

☆ Indonesia communications minister arrested for graft
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

JAKARTA, May 17 (Reuters) - Indonesian authorities on Wednesday arrested a senior cabinet minister on corruption charges in a case they said caused more than half a billion dollars in state losses. Johnny G. Plate is the fifth minister in President Joko Widodo's administrations to be charged with corruption. Johnny was arrested "as a user of the budget and as a minister", said AGO official Kuntadi, without detailing the minister's specific role. Another official Ketut Sumedana said the minister allegedly violated Indonesia's corruption law, which carries a maximum life sentence. According to global graft watchdog Transparency International, Indonesia dropped four points on its corruption perception index last year to 110 out of 180 countries.

WILMINGTON, Delaware, May 15 (Reuters) - The U.S. Virgin Islands has subpoenaed Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) CEO Elon Musk for documents in its lawsuit accusing JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) of helping enable sexual abuses by late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The Virgin Islands did not provide further explanation for its interest in obtaining documents from Musk. In the subpoena, the Virgin Islands demanded any documents Musk has about Epstein’s involvement in human trafficking and his procurement of girls or women for commercial sex. Additionally, the subpoena sought any communications between the entrepreneur and JPMorgan about Epstein as well as between Musk and Epstein. Musk is the second tech entrepreneur touched by the Virgin Islands litigation.

[1/3] An American flag waves outside the U.S. Department of Justice Building in Washington, U.S., December 15, 2020. REUTERS/Al Drago/File PhotoWASHINGTON, May 16 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday it has charged a former Apple Inc (AAPL.O) engineer with attempting to steal the firm's technology related to autonomous systems, including self-driving cars, and then fleeing to China. Two of the cases involved what Justice Department officials called procurement networks created to help Russia's military and intelligence services obtain sensitive technology. The former Apple engineer, identified as 35-year-old Weibao Wang, formerly resided in Mountain View, California, and was hired by Apple in 2016, according to an April indictment unsealed on Tuesday. After his last day at Apple, the company discovered that he had accessed large amounts of proprietary data in the days before his departure, the Justice Department said.

☆ Tableau's chief product officer says he's relied on 3 strategies to help his company thrive through more than a decade of economic ups and downs
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Meira Gebel | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Francois Ajenstat, Tableau's chief product officer, has been with the company for over 12 years. When faced with economic uncertainties, Ajenstat leans on the organization's value propositions. "Change management is hard for people, so you always have to connect people to the why," he told Insider. Ajenstat told Insider how fellow tech leaders can stay out of the red, while meeting their goals. Times of economic uncertainty provide leaders with the opportunity to evaluate operations, Ajenstat told Insider.

☆ A top Twitter staffer said its new encrypted DM feature was tested by a cybersecurity firm, but insiders say the company never signed a formal deal due to layoffs – report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Twitter announced its new encrypted DMs feature last week. The project's lead said it had been audited by a cybersecurity firm; company sources disputed this, per Platformer. A Twitter engineer leading the platform's new encrypted messaging feature for paid users appeared to falsely claim that it had been audited by a top cybersecurity firm, Platformer reported. The idea is that by having DMs encrypted, text can only be read by participants of that conversation – as is the case on platforms such as WhatsApp. "I had [cybersecurity firm] Trail of Bits audit our implementation.

☆ Justice Department files criminal charges in cases of American tech stolen for Russia, China and Iran
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Hannah Rabinowitz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —The Justice Department announced on Tuesday five criminal cases against people accused of stealing or illegally diverting American technology and materials for the Russian, Chinese and Iranian governments. The man, Xiangjiang Qiao, is at large in China, according to the Justice Department. “These charges demonstrate the Justice Department’s commitment to preventing sensitive technology from falling into the hands of foreign adversaries, including Russia, China, and Iran,” said Matthew Olsen of the Justice Department’s national security division. In New York, a Greek national is charged with allegedly acquiring more than 10 different types of sensitive technologies on behalf of the Russian government. The man, Dr. Nikolaos “Nikos” Bogonikolos, was arrested in Paris last week and the US will move for his extradition, the Justice Department said.

NEW DELHI, May 16 (Reuters) - Senior Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) executives will meet Indian government officials on Wednesday and Thursday to discuss local procurement of parts and other issues, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Tesla and an Indian government spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The electric carmaker had hired a local team and begun a search for showroom space, but that was also abandoned last year. The meeting comes weeks ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the United States in June. Reporting by Aditya Kalra; Additional reporting by Aditi Shah; Editing by Jan HarveyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Elon Musk documents subpoenaed in Jeffrey Epstein lawsuit by U.S. Virgin Islands
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Tom Hals | Thomson Reuters | Tom Hals Is An Award-Winning Reporter With Years Of Experience Working In Asia | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

☆ Saudi Aramco to supply full oil volumes to Asia in June, but some seek less
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Muyu Xu | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SINGAPORE, May 10 (Reuters) - Saudi Aramco has told customers in North Asia they will receive full volumes of crude oil that they have requested in June, several sources with knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday. But, some Chinese refiners have requested for lower supply volumes in June, said the sources. Saudi Aramco cut its official selling prices for all crude grades to Asia for June-loading cargoes amid lower refining margins. The falling profit margins have prompted refiners to seek cheaper oil from other suppliers such as Russia, or even consider lowering operational rates. Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, will reduce production by 500,000 bpd under the cuts.

☆ Exclusive: NEA and Pear VC just led a $4.5 million seed investment in Orby, the AI that has thoughts about your job performance
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Stealth AI startup Orby recently closed a $4.5 million seed round led by NEA and Pear VC. The scramble into AI startups continues apace as NEA and Pear VC lead a $4.5 million seed investment into stealth startup Orby, which seeks to leverage the power of surveillance to automate away life's most tedious tasks. It identifies wasted energy and inefficiencies, repetitive tasks that can be automated and handed off to the computer. They say Orby can identify this repetition and write code to automate it. Eventually, they say, Orby may start to know your job better than you do, and find solutions you never thought of.

☆ A Ukrainian donation drive built an 'Army of Drones' and picked up an unusual system called a 'Shahed Hunter' for Kyiv's forces
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

It has used the funds to purchase thousands of UAVs, and systems to hunt Russian drones. The Shahed Hunter system is a network of radars and signal jammers that can detect Russian drones from around 25 miles away, Fedorov said. It's unclear where, exactly, the Shahed Hunter systems have been used or how many times they have been deployed. But Fedorov noted that Ukraine needs more of the systems to defend against continuous waves of Russian drone attacks. On Sunday night alone, Ukraine's air defense systems shot down 35 drones — 30 of which targeted Kyiv, according to the country's defense ministry.

☆ IBM takes another shot at Watson as A.I. boom picks up steam
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Hayden Field | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

About 15 months ago, IBM sold its Watson Health unit for an undisclosed amount to private equity firm Francisco Partners. Now, Watson has given way to WatsonX, and IBM is trying to ride the latest boom in AI. The platform includes a feature for AI-generated code, an AI governance toolkit, and a library of thousands of large-scale AI models, trained on language, geospatial data, IT events and code, according to a release. IBM is partnering with HuggingFace, the buzzy AI startup and open source platform that reached a $2 billion valuation last year. "We allow an enterprise to use their own code to adapt the model to how they want to run their playbooks and their code," Krishna said.

☆ Russia's war on Ukraine latest: Russia marks Victory Day with new attacks on Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

* European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed Ukraine as "the beating heart of today's European values" in a deeply symbolic visit to Kyiv on Tuesday as Russia marked its World War Two Victory Day. CONFLICT* Russia's defence ministry said its forces had launched missile strikes at targets across Ukraine overnight, disrupting Kyiv's supplies of ammunition to the frontline and troop movements. * Ukraine said its air defences shot down 23 of 25 missiles, fired chiefly at Kyiv, and there were no reported casualties. * Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin made a cryptic, profanity-laced comment about those in charge of Russia's war on Ukraine. INTERNATIONAL* Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang said Beijing would maintain lines of communication with all parties to the war in Ukraine, including Germany, in seeking a ceasefire.

A British official said no final decision had been made to send missiles with these capabilities to Ukraine. Britain and other Western countries have scaled up their pledges of military aid for Ukraine this year. Britain said in January it would send 14 of its main Challenger 2 battle tanks to Ukraine. Yuriy Sak, an adviser to Ukraine's defence minister, told Reuters that Kyiv had no concrete information about the UK-led effort to supply long-range missiles, but that Ukraine had for months been consistently appealing to Western governments to provide long-range weapons. "We would welcome it if the UK takes on a leadership role with the long-range missiles, in the same way they did with the Challenger 2 main battle tanks," he said.

☆ No Black Sea grain deal ships inspected as Russian deadline looms
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Michelle Nichols | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON, May 8 (Reuters) - The United Nations said no ships were inspected on Sunday or Monday under a deal allowing the safe Black Sea export of Ukraine grain, which Moscow has threatened to quit on May 18 over obstacles to its own grain and fertilizer exports. The U.N. and Turkey brokered the Black Sea export agreement in July last year to help tackle a global food crisis that has been worsened by Moscow's war in Ukraine. Officials from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the U.N. make up a Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) in Istanbul, which implements the deal. To help convince Russia to allow Ukraine to resume Black Sea grain exports, a three-year pact was also struck in July 2022 in which the U.N. agreed to help Moscow facilitate those shipments. The Black Sea export deal also provided for the export of fertilizer, including ammonia, but there had been no such exports so far, the United Nations said.

☆ After a 35-year break, the US Navy is building frigates again, and it has a lot of catching up to do
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Benjamin Brimelow | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Fincantieri plans to lay the keel of that ship, USS Constellation, this August. It will be the US Navy's first frigate since the retirement of its last Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate in 2015. FrigatesUS Navy first-in-class frigate USS Oliver Hazard Perry in late 1977. Though not intended to operate alone against enemy capital ships, frigates are now primarily used to support destroyer squadrons and carrier battle groups by performing escort, anti-submarine, anti-air, and limited anti-surface missions. US Navy guided-missile frigate USS Curts in a dry dock at a shipyard in California in January 1982.

☆ Germany is finally focusing on defending NATO, but its military 'lacks almost everything' it needs to do it, a former German general says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Michael Peck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

That's the warning from a former German general who argues that Germany must refurbish its badly neglected armed forces — though this will take years to accomplish. Today, the German military is just 183,000-strong, and it can't meet its recruiting goals. In 2020, German defense spending was only 1.4% of GDP, well short of 2% goal that NATO members have pledged to hit by 2024. "Armament procurement concentrated on armored transport vehicles rather than on battle tanks and infantry fighting vehicles," Vad writes. RONNY HARTMANN/AFP via Getty ImagesDespite years of calls by France for pan-European defense, coordinating German defense procurement with other EU states — each with distinct military needs and political priorities – is difficult.

“We are lacking 70% of the needed ammunition!” Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin says in a video posted on Telegram. Shining a small flashlight on the corpses laying outdoors near what appears to be the front lines of the war, Prigozhin claims they are the casualties of just one day of fighting. “Shoigu, Gerasimov, where … is the ammunition?” says Prigozhin, calling out Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and chief of the Russian armed forces Gen. Valery Gerasimov. In February, he accused the two men of “treason” for their alleged failures to support and supply the Wagner group in Ukraine. Shortly after that posting, he made another saying a shipment of ammunition was on its way to the Wagner troops.

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