Jun 20, 2017

South Korea teams up with a Hyperloop startup to build ultra-fast trains

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) said on Tuesday that it has signed a licensing deal with a handful of South Korean organizations to jointly develop a full-scale version of the ultra-fast train. HTT is one of several several startups working to develop these trains based on a concept devised by Elon Musk in 2013.

South Korean government's department of technological innovation and infrastructure, the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology (KICT), Hanyang University, and other organizations signed a deal in January to develop a hyperloop system that will be called HyperTube Express (HTX)

Global competition: HTT competes with a few other startups also building hyperloop train systems, and many have struck deals to build prototypes and full-scale systems around the world, including the United Arab Emirates, Europe, and the U.S.

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Mike Allen

Kenan Thompson and Hasan Minhaj to headline White House Correspondents' Dinner

Kenan Thompson on "SNL" in 2018. Photo: Rosalind O'Connor/NBC via Getty Images

Kenan Thompson, the longest-tenured "Saturday Night Live" cast member, will host the White House Correspondents' Association dinner on April 25.

And Hasan Minhaj — host of Netflix’s "Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj," and the entertainer at the 2017 dinner — will return as featured entertainer.

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Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen

"Billions": Season 2020

Mike Bloomberg speaks at Hardywood Park Craft Brewery in Richmond, Va., on Saturday. Photo: James H. Wallace/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP

Money alone can’t buy a presidential election, but it surely gets you VIP access.

Why it matters: Billionaire Michael Bloomberg is duking it out with Billionaire Donald Trump, often on Billionaire Jack Dorsey’s Twitter and in ads on Billionaire Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook, all chronicled in Billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post.

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Jennifer A. Kingson

Biometrics invade banking and retail

Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios

Banks have been quietly rolling out biometrics to identify customers — verifying them by their fingerprint, voice or eye scan — and retailers like Amazon are getting into the game.

Why it matters: These companies are amassing giant databases of our most personal information — including our gait, how we hold our cellphones, our typing patterns — that raise knotty questions about data security and privacy.

Go deeper1 hour ago - Economy & Business