Bay Area-based autonomous farming startup Iron Ox this week announced a $53 million round. The Series C, led by Breakthrough Energy Venture, brings the firm’s total funding up to $98 million. Iron Ox is one of a large number of companies looking to revolutionize farming for the 21st century, amid growing concerns over population growth, […]
ExpressVPN employees complain about ex-spy’s top role at company
September 23, 2021 By Joseph Menn SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – When a senior executive at virtual private network company ExpressVPN admitted to working on behalf of a foreign intelligence service to hack American machines last week, it stunned employees at his new company, according to interviews and electronic records. What ExpressVPN then said after the […]
R. Kelly’s defense says accusers had motive to lie. ‘Convict him,’ prosecutor says
September 23, 2021 By Tyler Clifford and Luc Cohen NEW YORK (Reuters) – R. Kelly’s accusers were motivated by money to lie about his alleged sexual abuses, a lawyer for the R&B superstar argued on Thursday in a final effort to persuade jurors not to convict Kelly of sex trafficking charges. In his closing argument […]
U.S. House approves $1 billion for Israel’s ‘Iron Dome’ missile-defense system
September 23, 2021 By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to give $1 billion to Israel for its Iron Dome missile-defense system, two days after objections from the most liberal Democrats forced leaders to remove it from a broader spending bill. The measure passed by 420 to 9 […]
DAZN outage during live Serie A soccer matches sparks anger in Italy
September 23, 2021 MILAN (Reuters) – A technical outage occurred at sport global service DAZN in Italy on Thursday, sparking anger among customers unable to access the app and watch part of Serie A soccer games Sampdoria v Napoli and Torino v Lazio. DAZN, which secured the rights to screen all Serie A live soccer […]
Lifting international travel restrictions will boost U.S. economy -Commerce chief
September 23, 2021 WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on Thursday that the decision by the Biden administration to lift international travel restrictions in early November will be a boost to the U.S. economy, especially for tourist destinations like New York and for business travel. Raimondo said the decision announced Monday to […]
Fed’s Powell opens door to tougher regulations as renomination decision looms
September 23, 2021 By Lindsay Dunsmuir (Reuters) – Even as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell predictably dodged the latest question over his future as head of the central bank, his signal of openness to Democratic demands for tougher regulation of Wall Street under a new regulatory chief may assuage what critics see as a weak […]
Nike misses estimates for quarterly revenue, shares fall
September 23, 2021 (Reuters) – Nike Inc missed estimates for quarterly revenue on Thursday, signaling demand for its sports shoes and apparel was slowing. Nike’s shares, which are down about 9% from their record high hit in August, fell 3% in extended trading. Months long factory closures in Vietnam, where about half of all Nike […]
Airbus sees LatAm aviation market at pre-pandemic levels by 2024
September 23, 2021 MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – The aviation market in Latin America and the Caribbean should by early 2024 recover to the size it was before the coronavirus pandemic, Arturo Barreira, regional chief of European aircraft maker Airbus, said on Thursday. Travel restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 health emergency hit civil aviation hard last […]
Linda Evangelista files $50 million lawsuit over disfiguring cosmetic treatment
September 23, 2021 LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Former supermodel Linda Evangelista has filed a $50 million lawsuit over cosmetic procedures that she says left her “brutally disfigured” and turned her into a recluse. The Canadian model, one of the biggest figures on runways and magazine covers in the 1990s, said in an Instagram post that […]
Cinema returns to Somalia after decades of shut-downs and strife
September 23, 2021 By Abdirahman Hussein MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Dozens of Somalis posed for selfies and chattered excitedly in rows of red, plush seats as they waited for the start of their country’s first movie screening in three decades. Among the crowd in the National Theatre was 24-year-old Kaif Jama, the writer and star of […]
U.S. special envoy to Haiti quits over ‘inhumane’ migrant deportations
September 23, 2021 By Daina Beth Solomon and Humeyra Pamuk CIUDAD ACUNA, Mexico/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. special envoy to Haiti resigned in protest in a letter that blasted the Biden administration for deporting hundreds of migrants back to the crisis-engulfed Caribbean nation from a camp on the U.S.-Mexican border in recent days. Daniel Foote, […]
Soccer-Rooney vows to stay at Derby despite club entering administration
September 23, 2021 (Reuters) – Derby County manager Wayne Rooney said he will not walk away from his role at the second-tier Championship club after they were handed a 12-point deduction for going into administration. The former Manchester United and England striker took interim charge of the club last November following the departure of Phillip […]
U.S. Commerce chief: ‘Aggressive’ action on chips shortage needed
September 23, 2021 WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said Thursday it is time to get “aggressive” in addressing the worsening semiconductor chips shortage that has caused automakers and others to cut production and impacted thousands of U.S. workers. “It’s time to get more aggressive. The situation is not getting better, in some […]
U.S. oil refiners use Iraqi, Canadian crudes to replace storm losses -traders
September 23, 2021 By Arathy S Nair and Marianna Parraga HOUSTON (Reuters) – U.S. oil refiners hunting to replace storm-lost U.S. Gulf of Mexico crude have been turning to Iraqi and Canadian oil, while Asian buyers have been pursuing Middle Eastern and Russian grades, analysts and traders said. Royal Dutch Shell, the largest producer in […]
Dollar slumps as risk appetite rebounds
September 23, 2021 By Saqib Iqbal Ahmed and Chuck Mikolajczak NEW YORK (Reuters) – The dollar fell across the board on Thursday as improved risk sentiment in global financial markets wiped out its gains in the previous session after the U.S. Federal Reserve flagged plans to dial back its stimulus this year. Investors’ risk appetite […]
Posts Spread Dubious Claim About Ivermectin and Male Fertility
SciCheck Digest The Food and Drug Administration says male infertility is not a known side effect of the antiparasitic medication ivermectin. Dubious claims that the drug sterilizes 85% of male users were incorrectly attributed to a questionable 2011 study of the drug’s effect on a small sample of Nigerian men with onchocerciasis, a tropical disease also […]
R. Kelly hid crimes in ‘plain sight,’ prosecutor says near end of sex trafficking trial
September 23, 2021 By Tyler Clifford NEW YORK (Reuters) -R. Kelly dominated not only women and girls but also his employees over a quarter century of sexual abuse, a prosecutor said on Wednesday as the R&B star’s sex trafficking trial neared its conclusion. Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Geddes told jurors during her closing argument in […]
Japan and South Korea meet, restate positions in dispute
September 23, 2021 WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi met his South Korean counterpart Chung Eui-yong on Thursday and the two restated positions in a dispute that has brought tit-for-tat trade restrictions, but agreed to accelerate consultations to resolve the issue, Japan’s account of the meeting said. Motegi and Chung met in New […]
U.S. Vice President Harris welcomes India’s resuming COVID exports
September 23, 2021 WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris said on Thursday that she welcomes India’s announcement that it will resume COVID-19 vaccine exports. India announced this week that it resume exports of COVID-19 vaccines later this year. India, the world’s biggest maker of vaccines, stopped exports of COVID shots in April to […]
