News

High-Speed Freight Link Hyperloop One To Shut Down

The high-tech transportation system was planned to connect Europe and China.

Published

3 years ago

December 22, 2023

high-speed freight link hyperloop one to shut down

Founded in 2014 with the goal of building a high-speed freight link between Europe and China, Hyperloop One is reportedly shutting down.

Following a paper in 2014 by Elon Musk about his vision for hyperloop transport systems, the project intended to carry cargo along the length of its route in just a single day. The company planned to carry cargo and people in pods traveling through sealed metal tubes at aircraft-like speeds.

From 2017 until 2022, the company was known as Virgin Hyperloop One due to an investment from Richard Branson’s Virgin Group. However, Virgin pulled out last year when Hyperloop One decided to abandon plans to transport passengers. The company has now laid off over 100 staff members due to its change in priorities.

Also Read: Aramex And Regent To Develop Electric Seagliders

According to news outlet Bloomberg, Hyperloop One never secured a contract to build a working hyperloop system, and all remaining employees will be gone by December 31.

News

Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon

Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.

Published

2 weeks ago

August 27, 2026

Dana Saadeh

visa's return to syria starts with a test and a bank in lebanon

Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.

The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.

Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc

— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026

“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.

Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.

Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget

The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.

Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.