September 30, 2021 By Gavin Jones ROME (Reuters) – Mayoral elections in Italy’s largest cities on Sunday and Monday are expected to illustrate Matteo Salvini’s weakening grip of the right and see centre-left wins in the most high-profile contests. A parliamentary by-election in the Tuscan city of Siena will also be closely watched because it […]
U.S. Supreme Court to consider Senator Cruz’s campaign finance challenge
September 30, 2021 By Andrew Chung (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear the Federal Election Commission’s bid to restore a campaign finance law that caps the amount of money that candidates can be reimbursed for personal loans to their campaigns in a challenge brought by Republican Senator Ted Cruz. The justices […]
Poland illegally pushed migrants back into Belarus, Amnesty Int’l says
September 30, 2021 By Joanna Plucinska and Robin Emmott WARSAW/BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Poland carried out an unlawful pushback of a group of migrants camped out on its border with Belarus in late August, an analysis of satellite imagery and other photos and videos by NGO Amnesty International published on Thursday said. Amnesty said that using satellite […]
Forta launches with $23M to bring better security to smart contracts
Blockchain cybersecurity startup OpenZeppelin this morning announced a $23 million investment in Forta, a security service aimed at smart contracts. Andreessen Horowitz led the round, which OpenZeppelin CEO and co-founder Demian Brener described as 3x oversubscribed. The investment also attracted capital from Coinbase Ventures, True Ventures and Blockchain Capital, among others. Per Brener, OpenZeppelin will […]
McConnell says U.S. Senate will pass bill avoiding gov’t shutdown
September 30, 2021 WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell predicted on Thursday that the Senate would pass a measure to avoid a partial government shutdown, signalling Republican support for a Democratic measure due to be considered later in the day. (Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama) Source Link McConnell says […]
Ethiopia expels seven senior U.N. officials
September 30, 2021 ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) -Ethiopia is expelling seven senior United Nations officials, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday, two days after a senior U.N. official said hundreds of thousands of people in the northern region of Tigray were likely experiencing famine. The seven, who include the head of the United Nations […]
Afghan girls’ soccer squad find new home in Ronaldo’s Portugal
September 30, 2021 By Catarina Demony LISBON (Reuters) – Leaving her homeland Afghanistan was painful, says 15-year-old Sarah. But now safely in Portugal, she hopes to pursue her dream of playing soccer professionally – and perhaps meeting her idol, star striker Cristiano Ronaldo. Sarah was one of several players from Afghanistan’s national female youth soccer […]
Sharing mobility data without compromising privacy
Chelsey Colbert Contributor Share on Twitter Chelsey Colbert is policy counsel at the Future of Privacy Forum. Chelsey leads FPF’s portfolio on mobility and location data, which includes connected and automated vehicles, ride-sharing, micromobility, drones, delivery robots and mobility data sharing. In recent years, rows of electric scooters and bikes lining sidewalks have become a […]
Iran nuclear talks to resume in acceptable period of time – EU
September 30, 2021 DUBAI (Reuters) -Stalled talks between Iran and world powers to reinstate a 2015 nuclear deal will resume “soon”, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Thursday, while Tehran said it was evaluating the previous rounds of negotiations. Speaking at a news conference in the Qatari capital Doha, Borrell was […]
Microsoft’s Saqib Shaikh, lead on Seeing AI, is returning to Sight Tech Global, Dec. 1-2
At last year’s inaugural Sight Tech Global event, a virtual event dedicated to applications of AI and related tech to accessibility for people who are blind, one of the most popular sessions belonged to Saqib Shaikh. The Microsoft engineer co-founded and leads the Seeing AI mobile app, which embeds a remarkable number of services beneficial to people […]
Israel foreign minister visits Bahrain to sign deals, open embassy
September 30, 2021 DUBAI (Reuters) -Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid flew to Bahrain on Thursday on the highest-level Israeli visit to the Gulf state since the countries established formal relations last year. Lapid, who landed at Bahrain’s international airport in an Israir plane with an olive branch painted on its nose, met Bahrain’s King Hamad […]
Somalia opens first public oxygen plant to help treat COVID-19 amid severe shortage
September 30, 2021 By Abdi Sheikh MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Somalia’s first public oxygen plant opened on Thursday, in a ray of hope for a country where a lifesaving treatment for the coronavirus has been largely unavailable to patients during the pandemic. Global demand for medical oxygen has surged with the COVID-19 pandemic, and many countries […]
Boxing-Joshua says he has identified mistakes and learnt his lesson
September 30, 2021 LONDON (Reuters) – Anthony Joshua said on Thursday he knew where he went wrong in losing his world heavyweight boxing titles to Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk, and had learnt his lesson. Usyk took the Briton’s WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO belts on a unanimous points decision at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last Saturday. […]
GM extending Blazer production halt in Mexico
September 30, 2021 WASHINGTON (Reuters) – General Motors Co said Thursday it will extend by two weeks a halt to Chevrolet Blazer sport utility vehicle production at its Ramos plant in Mexico because of the ongoing chips shortage as it resumes production at other North American plants. The largest U.S. automaker said production will resume […]
Ad Astro
Let’s talk about arms for a second. Or, rather, let’s talk about a lack of arms. It’s a common thread between Jibo, Kuri and now Astro. I suppose one could make the argument that Anki’s Cozmo had arms of a kind, but the overhead forklift wasn’t good for much beyond hooking into a proprietary block. […]
UK class action-style suit filed over DeepMind NHS health data scandal
A UK law firm is bringing a class-action style claim over a patient health data scandal that dates back to 2015 and involves the Google-owned AI company DeepMind, after it was quietly passed medical information on over a million patients by an NHS Trust as part of an app development project. Law firm Mishcon de […]
Syrians face common enemy across frontlines: surging COVID-19
September 30, 2021 IDLIB, Syria (Reuters) – In both the Syrian capital Damascus and parts of the country that have rebelled against its rule during a decade of war, people are facing the same enemy: COVID-19. Intensive care beds have filled up at hospitals across the fractured nation this month because of a COVID-19 surge, […]
Accel, Tiger and Stripe’s COO back Mexico City-based Higo as it raises $23M for its B2B payments platform
Just six months after raising $3.3 million in seed funding, Mexico City-based Higo announced today it has raised $23 million in a Series A round led by Accel. Tiger Global Management also participated in the financing, along with existing backers Haystack, Homebrew, Audacious, Susa Ventures and J Ventures. A number of angel investors also put […]
Canada marks first national holiday for indigenous reconciliation
September 30, 2021 By Steve Scherer OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada on Thursday held its the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation to honor the lost children and survivors of indigenous schools, following the gruesome discovery of more than 1,000 unmarked graves https://ift.tt/3usNOeQ at two former schools earlier this year. The so-called residential school https://ift.tt/39S1Zkw […]
Public inquiry into London Grenfell fire turned into play
September 30, 2021 By Marie-Louise Gumuchian LONDON (Reuters) – In a rehearsal room in west London, actor Derek Elroy delivers a powerful monologue about the devastating 2017 fire at Grenfell Tower, a social housing block just a short distance away. In the role of barrister Leslie Thomas, Elroy’s lines are taken from the public inquiry […]
