A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Pentagon to halt work on the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud computing network, known as JEDI, while the court considers allegations that President Donald Trump improperly interfered in the bidding process.

The order comes a day before the Defense Department had planned to “go live” with what it has long argued is a crucial national defense priority.

A Defense Department spokeswoman said the litigation will hurt U.S. troops.

“We are disappointed in today’s ruling and believe the actions taken in this litigation have unnecessarily delayed implementing DoD’s modernization strategy and put our nation’s warfighters in harm’s way,” said Rachel VanJohnson, a spokeswoman for the Pentagon’s cloud computing program office. “However, we are confident in our award of the JEDI Cloud contract to Microsoft and remain focused on getting this critical capability into the hands of our warfighters as quickly and efficiently as possible.”

The JEDI contract is meant to create a powerful, centralized computer system operated by a commercial technology company.

The JEDI cloud is expected to improve U.S. troops’ access to technology and intelligence in far-flung war zones. It is also expected speed up the adoption of advanced artificial intelligence that can quickly scan terabytes worth of drone surveillance footage, and serve as a stepping-stone for not-yet-imagined defense capabilities.

The sought-after contract, worth up to $10 billion over 10 years, was awarded to Microsoft in late October after a last-minute intervention from the White House prompted Defense Secretary Mark Esper to reexamine the department’s approach.

Amazon’s market-leading cloud computing division is suing the Defense Department in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, arguing that the president’s involvement skewed the playing field in its rival’s favor. The company says the Defense Department made numerous errors as it weighed bids from Amazon and Microsoft. And it accused Trump of launching “repeated public and behind-the-scenes attacks” against Amazon to act on a grudge against the company’s founder, Jeff Bezos. (Bezos also owns The Washington Post.)

In an extraordinary move, the company has asked to depose Trump, along with Esper, former defense secretary Jim Mattis and other officials. Late last month, Amazon filed a motion seeking to halt further contract performance while the court evaluates Amazon’s claims.

George Washington University law professor Steven Schooner, a leading expert in government contracts law, said it is rare though not unprecedented for a court to order a halt to contract performance over the Justice Department’s objections.

He added, however, that the ruling could help Amazon’s case moving forward.

“What is particularly significant is that, given [the Justice Department’s objection] . . . the Court is signaling that it is more likely than not that [Amazon] has pled a case in which it appears to be entitled to a remedy and may, ultimately, prevail on the merits,” Schooner said in an email.

An Amazon spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling. Frank Shaw, Microsoft’s vice president of corporate communications, expressed disappointment in the decision and defended the Pentagon’s handling of JEDI.

“While we are disappointed with the additional delay we believe that we will ultimately be able to move forward with the work to make sure those who serve our country can access the new technology they urgently require,” Shaw said in a statement. “We have confidence in the Department of Defense, and we believe the facts will show they ran a detailed, thorough and fair process in determining the needs of the warfighter were best met by Microsoft.”

When Amazon filed its request to halt performance, company spokesman Drew Herdener argued that it is “common practice” to halt contract performance during a bid protest, adding that the company supports the Pentagon’s technology modernization initiatives.

“It’s important that the numerous evaluation errors and blatant political interference that impacted the JEDI award decision be reviewed,” Herdener said in a statement at the time.

Thursday’s news came with a tinge of irony for Amazon, which finds itself now opposed to the Pentagon’s position. For most of last year, attorneys from Amazon and the Defense Department worked together to defend JEDI from a separate legal case brought by another company.

“It is kind of a status quo in government that everything gets protested,” Teresa Carlson, AWS public-sector vice president, said at a recent conference, adding, “which is kind of sad, because it delays innovation.” (Carlson’s comments came before AWS filed its bid protest.)

The Defense Department fought Amazon’s request, hoping to move forward with Microsoft despite the litigation. The JEDI contract has already been delayed more than a year past its original planned start date. An earlier bid protest brought by Oracle forced delays as various allegations against Amazon required investigation. The case is being appealed.

Outside the courtroom, Oracle separately waged a long-running lobbying campaign seeking to get the president involved. Oracle co-CEO Safra Catz raised the issue directly with Trump at a White House dinner weeks after the project was announced in 2018, The Post and Bloomberg reported at the time.

Those efforts seemed to bear fruit last summer. Trump said in a July 18 news conference that he had received “tremendous complaints from companies that compete with Amazon, specifically naming Oracle, IBM and Microsoft. Around that time an Oracle lobbying document labeled “A Conspiracy To Create A Ten Year DoD Cloud Monopoly” reached his desk, The Post and CNN reported.

Then, in late July, Esper launched a review of the Pentagon’s broader approach to JEDI, telling The Post he wanted to “take a hard look” at the contract. He noted that he had “heard a lot from the White House” as well as from members of Congress. Defense officials have insisted that Trump did not “order” Esper to make any specific determination with respect to JEDI. They have argued it followed a separate track from the Defense Department procurement experts who evaluated bids.

Court documents have subsequently revealed that Esper did meet with individuals closely involved in the evaluation process as part of his review. Whether those individuals were influenced by Trump’s repeated statements against Amazon, or by Esper’s line of questioning is an important question in the bid protest case.

Throughout the repeated delays, defense officials have repeatedly said they need fast access to the JEDI cloud in order to achieve the department’s technology modernization goals.

In court filings unsealed Wednesday, the Defense Department estimated that putting another hold on JEDI would cost it between $5 million and $7 million every month it is held up. Although military agencies have at least 20 other contracts they can use to order cloud computing services, their existing ones are seen as too unwieldy. Several of them work through middlemen known as “cloud brokers” and require computing services to be ordered manually, which can cause significant delays.

Top officials have argued against delaying the project any longer. They say the JEDI cloud is an essential element of their strategy to compete with hostile nations for technological dominance.

“The United States cannot expect military success fighting tomorrow’s conflicts with yesterday’s technology,” Air Force Lt. Gen. Bradford Shwedo, who oversees command, control, communications and cyber initiatives at the Defense Department, wrote in a court filing unsealed Wednesday. “Providing DoD with rapid access to an enterprise cloud, one which provides elastic computing power and storage, is vital to U.S. national security.”

“The men and women of the U.S. military must have access to the right technology at the right time to fight and win wars,” Shwedo wrote. “Delaying implementation of a cloud solution will negatively affect DoD’s efforts to be victorious in contested environments and retain global influence over our near-peer competitors.”

The new charges accuse Huawei and its subsidiaries of a decades-long effort to steal intellectual property from six U.S. tech companies, including by offering Huawei employees bonuses for obtaining confidential information, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York said Thursday.

Huawei and two of its U.S. subsidiaries violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, through their actions, prosecutors said. The alleged theft helped Huawei illegally obtain technology relating to internet routers and antennas, giving the company an unfair competitive advantage, prosecutors said.

An indictment filed in federal court in Brooklyn also includes new allegations about the activities of Huawei and its subsidiaries in Iran and North Korea, countries subject to sanctions by the U.S., the European Union or the United Nations.

A Washington Post report last year detailed Huawei’s secret efforts to help the North Korean government build and maintain a wireless telecommunications network. Huawei is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of telecom equipment and smartphones.

Huawei denied the charges in an emailed statement. “This new indictment is part of the Justice Department’s attempt to irrevocably damage Huawei’s reputation and its business for reasons related to competition rather than law enforcement,” the company said. “These new charges are without merit and are based largely on recycled civil disputes from the last 20 years that have been previously settled, litigated and in some cases, rejected by federal judges and juries.”

The new indictment represents an escalation of a case announced last year, when federal prosecutors charged Huawei and its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, with bank and wire fraud. Huawei was also charged with violating U.S. sanctions on Iran and conspiring to obstruct justice related to the investigation. Huawei and Meng denied those charges.

Meng, the daughter of Huawei’s founder, Ren Zhengfei, has been under house arrest in Canada since last year, fighting extradition to the U.S.

The new charges come as the Trump administration appears to have stumbled in its campaign to persuade foreign governments not to allow Huawei to provide equipment for 5G wireless networks. In addition to attacking Huawei for its business practices, the Trump administration argues that the company is ultimately controlled by China’s Communist Party, and that its equipment installed oversees could be used to facilitate espionage – charges Huawei denies.

The indictment accuses Huawei of lying about its involvement in North Korea to multinational banks that had subsidiaries in the United States. U.S. law prohibits banks with U.S. operations from handling dollar transactions related to sanctioned countries.

As The Post reported, federal prosecutors said Huawei referred to North Korea in internal documents with the code “A9,” reflecting the sensitivity of working with a sanctioned country.

Huawei also attempted to conceal its business dealings with North Korea by instructing one of its business partners not to include a Huawei logo on the company’s shipments to North Korea, according to the indictment.

The original charges unveiled last year alleged that Huawei, and CFO Meng, lied to banking authorities to avoid questions about whether the company evaded U.S. sanctions prohibiting dealings with Iran. Prosecutors alleged Meng lied to a bank executive about the relationship between Huawei and a company in Iran called Skycom, which prosecutors said functioned as a Huawei subsidiary.

The new indictment says Huawei installed equipment that helped Iran’s government perform domestic surveillance, including during anti-government demonstrations in 2009. It also says Skycom, on behalf of Huawei, violated U.S. law by employing at least one U.S. citizen in Iran.

In relation to the alleged IP theft, the indictment says Huawei set up a bonus program in 2013 that rewarded employees for stealing information from competitors, based on the value of the information obtained. Some employees were directed to send sensitive information via encrypted email, the indictment alleges.

The charges allege that beginning in the early 2000s, Huawei and a subsidiary stole the operating source code for Internet routers from a U.S. tech company headquartered in California. The indictment says the U.S. company sued Huawei for intellectual property infringement in a Texas court in 2003.

The U.S. company isn’t named, but the details match a 2003 Cisco lawsuit against Huawei, which the parties later settled. Cisco declined to comment Thursday.

The indictment also alleges Huawei stole technology relating to cellular antennas from another U.S. company. It did so by pretending to seek a business partnership with the company and then stealing details the U.S. company provided under a non-disclosure agreement, prosecutors say.

In a joint statement, the heads of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., applauded the new charges. Criticism of Huawei has been largely bipartisan in Congress, where many lawmakers agree with the White House view that Huawei is a security threat and an unfair business competitor – allegations Huawei denies.

“Intellectual property theft, corporate sabotage, and market manipulation are part of Huawei’s core ethos and reflected in every aspect of how it conducts business,” the senators said. “Huawei’s unlawful business practices are a threat to fair and open markets, as well as to legitimate competition in a tech space that is critical for the global economy.”

The transaction raised the Social Security Office’s shareholding in LPN to a total of 73.26 million shares.

Seven & i Holdings Co., the Japanese company that controls 7-Eleven, is working with advisers as it considers a takeover of Speedway, according to the people. Any acquisition of Speedway could value the business at more than $20 billion, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.

TDR has also been weighing a deal for Speedway, the people said. The private equity firm is interested in merging Speedway with one of its portfolio companies, U.K. gas-station operator EG Group, in a transaction that could be worth an estimated $26 billion, one of the people said. The proposal envisioned a tax-efficient method known as a Reverse Morris Trust, the person said.

Other suitors have also shown interest in Speedway, though there’s no certainty the deliberations will lead to a transaction, the people said. Representatives for Marathon, Seven & i, EG Group and TDR declined to comment.

Marathon Petroleum rose 2.9% to $58.39 at 9:39 a.m. in New york trading, giving the company a market value of about $37.9 billion.

Marathon Petroleum, a refiner under pressure from activist investors to break up, is exploring a sale of Speedway after announcing plans last year to spin off the retailer, people familiar with the matter said in January. Speedway, with about 4,000 stores in the U.S., could be worth as much as $18 billion including debt as a standalone company, Marathon Petroleum has said.

Tokyo-based Seven & i, Japan’s largest convenience store operator, has more than 69,000 stores in 18 markets globally, according to its website.

EG Group, run by billionaire co-founders Mohsin and Zuber Issa, has more than 5,500 stores in Europe and the U.S. under the brands Esso, BP and Shell, according to TDR’s website. The company was formed in 2016 when the Issa brothers’ company, Euro Garages, merged with TDR’s European Forecourt Retail Group.

EG Group is considering an initial public offering that could value the U.K.-based company at more than 10 billion pounds ($13 billion), Bloomberg News has reported.

Announced at an event in San Francisco on Feb. 11, the Z Flip is going on sale on Valentine’s Day at a price of $1,380. It’s shaping up to be the most refined and complete foldable phone to date, and though its price remains high, it is actually the most affordable foldable from a big-name manufacturer. In the space of a few months, Samsung has shrunk both the size and price of the $1,980 Galaxy Fold into a compact square device, and it’s decided the foldable category has earned a distinct division in its phone portfolio.

“With the Z Series, we are adopting a new naming convention for our foldable portfolio that shows our commitment to expanding the category to offer a variety of experiences,” a Samsung spokesperson told Bloomberg News in Seoul. “We chose ‘Z’ for this series because it intuitively communicates the idea of a fold while delivering a dynamic, youthful feel.”

Galaxy V would have been even more evocative of the Z Flip’s profile, but alas, Samsung already used that letter on a forgettable phone back in 2014.

SCGP recorded Bt89 billion in sales last year. It has allocated Bt8 billion (excluding budget for merger and acquisition) this year for the expansion of its packaging capacity in Asean.

Currently, its main production base and markets are in Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia.

The company is focusing its investment in the Asean market, he said.

SCGP has submitted its plan to list in the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

And to celebrate its 75th anniversary of sustained successes, Krungsri is committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 7.5 million kgCO2e, underscoring the organisation’s responsibility in climate change management.

Krungsri President and Chief Executive Officer Seiichiro Akita said, “Notwithstanding numerous challenges facing the banking sector in 2019, we delivered remarkable performances measured by both financial and ESG metrics, namely the healthiest loan expansion and strongest asset quality compared to D-SIB peers, as well as an inauguration of the first private sector gender bond not only in Thailand but also in the Asia Pacific”.

For 2020, the last year of the bank’s current medium-term business plan, Krungsri will continue to strive towards becoming a top-tier bank in Thailand, supporting by three key strategic thrusts across business segments, namely 1) Enhancing Customer Experience 2) Utilising Data Driven Capabilities and 3) Focusing on Partnership Strategy.

“Digital game changing through both products and processes innovation and services enhancements will be our 2020 strategic priorities. In particular, our prioritised initiatives will centre around the establishment of value-added ecosystems for our customers, including car user, home buyer, and SME ecosystems,” Akita added.

Aiming to contribute to the development of a sustainable society and linked to its ESG mandate, Krungsri has launched several business initiatives to support sustainable growth of local communities through digital innovation and financial inclusion.

In regard to greenhouse gas, it will reduce emissions to 7.5 million kgCO2e throughout its operations, including product and service offerings in support of Thailand’s transition toward the low carbon economy.

In 2020, Krungsri expects to see loan growth of 5 to 7 per cent and net interest margin of 3.4-3.6 per cent. Non-interest income growth is expected to be in range of -3 to 3 per cent while the NPL ratio is expected to be below 2.5 per cent.

The five were True Move H Universal Communication Company Limited (TUC) of True Corp, dtac TriNet of Total Access Communication, Advanced Wireless Network (AWN) of Advanced Info Service (AIS), TOT and CAT Telecom.

TUC, AWN, dtac TriNet and TOT targeted the 26GHz band, said NBTC secretary-general Takorn Tantasith.

AWN and TUC were also keen on 700MHz and 2,600MHz, he said, adding that CAT was also interested in the two bands.

None of them targeted the 1800MHz band, he said.

The NBTC will auction three licences of the 700MHz, seven licences of 1800MHz, 19 licences of the 2,600MHz, and 27 licences of the 26GHz. The NBTC expected the winners to use the bands to provide 5G wireless broadband service.

The competition for the 2,600MHz licences are expected to intensify, given the need for at least 100MHz bandwidth (ten licences) out of the available 190MHz bandwidth (19 licences) in the auction in order to enable the company to provide effective 5G service.

The 2,600MHz licence, each containing 10MHz bandwidth, is priced at Bt1.862 billion. Each bidder can have a maximum of 10 licences for this band.

It’s also what 15 hedge fund managers collectively earned in 2019.

Five of them-Chris Hohn, Jim Simons, Ken Griffin, Steve Cohen and Chase Coleman-reaped more than $1 billion each, according to estimates by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The rewards for the men-and they’re all men-are notable, especially given only a third of the 15 managers on the list beat the S&P 500 Index’s 29% gain last year. It also comes as the hedge fund industry has been grappling with closures and mediocre returns.

Hedge fund advocates say they’re supposed to profit regardless of whether the market goes up or down and performance shouldn’t only be compared with equity indexes. Still, many were boosted by soaring stocks as central banks, including the Federal Reserve, kept monetary policy loose.

Many of the firms made money betting on the same stocks, typically tech names. More than half those on Bloomberg’s list counted Alibaba Group Holdings and Facebook among their top 10 contributors to equity returns, according to an analysis of regulatory filings.

“If that’s where the opportunity is, it’s where it is,” said Darren Wolf, head of alternative investment strategies for the Americas at Aberdeen Asset Management, which invests in hedge funds on behalf of its clients. “But it creates challenges for us,” he said, because Aberdeen’s clients are already invested in indexes heavily weighted with tech stocks.

Most of the managers on this year’s list charge fees of at least 20% on gains, even as the industry is slashing fees amid pressure from investors disappointed with years of lackluster performance. Representatives for the firms on the list declined to comment.

Marcus Frampton, chief investment officer for Alaska Permanent Fund Corp., said his firm, which oversees $68 billion, is “happy to pay 20% in fees” as long as a manager consistently produces benchmark-beating returns. “That represents skill not market exposure.”

Hohn, 53, topped the rankings after his TCI Fund Management gained 41%. The London-based activist was lifted by concentrated bets on stocks, including Alphabet Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Canadian rail companies.

Griffin, 51, made $1.5 billion through his multistrategy funds. That doesn’t even take into account his market-making operation, Citadel Securities, which generates billions more in revenue.

Simons, 81, features prominently on the list even though he retired from Renaissance Technologies a decade ago. His ownership stake in the firm, which now manages $75 billion — plus his investment in the secretive Medallion Fund — almost guarantees that he’ll continue to be among the highest-paid managers for years to come.

Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio collected $480 million, down from $1.3 billion in 2018, after his flagship fund Pure Alpha II lost money for the first time in two decades. Dalio’s All Weather strategy fared better, gaining almost 17% last year, while he continues to have a sizable ownership interest in the $160 billion Connecticut-based firm.

The list excludes those who no longer manage external capital, such as Michael Platt and Stanley Druckenmiller, but is notable for featuring so many Tiger Management alumni.

These are the so-called Tiger Cubs, who worked for legendary investor Julian Robertson, and Tiger grandcubs. Lone Pine’s Stephen Mandel and Tiger Global’s Coleman each gained more than 30% in their main funds. Andreas Halvorsen of Viking Global returned 18%. His former chief investment officer, Dan Sundheim, returned 22% at his relatively new firm D1 Capital Partners.

“They all had good years because they tend to be net long,” Alaska’s Frampton said of the Tiger complex.

Part of the money raised will be used in its ongoing investment at the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC).

He added that the company would decide whether to launch the bonds in baht or US dollar.

PTTGC is still looking for merger and acquisition opportunities in the upstream and downstream petrochemical businesses and is in talks with a number of local and foreign companies, he said.