September 21, 2021 LONDON (Reuters) – British police on Tuesday said a third Russian man was involved in the nerve agent attack on double agent Sergei Skripal in southern England three years ago. Police said there was evidence to charge the man, Denis Sergeev, who went by the alias Sergei Fedotov, with plotting to kill […]
EU states breached air pollution limits in 2020 despite COVID
September 21, 2021 By Kate Abnett BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Most European Union countries broke at least one air pollution limit last year, even as COVID-19 lockdowns improved air quality in many regions, according to provisional European Environment Agency (EEA) data published on Tuesday. Excessive air pollution has landed around 10 EU countries in court in […]
Slovak bishop who met Pope Francis last week tests positive for COVID
September 21, 2021 PRAGUE (Reuters) – A Slovak bishop of the Greek-Catholic Church, who met Pope Francis when the pontiff visited the central European country last week, tested positive for COVID-19 and is in self-quarantine, the church said. Pope Francis visited Hungary and Slovakia between Sept. 12-15, which was his first trip since having surgery […]
Afghanistan’s Taliban say working on reopening girls’ high schools
September 21, 2021 (Reuters) – The Taliban administration in Afghanistan is working towards reopening high school education for girls, who were left out of a recent return to school for boys and younger girls, although a Taliban spokesman speaking on Tuesday gave no time frame for action. The Taliban say they have changed since their […]
Russian city mourns victims of university shooting
September 21, 2021 MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Russian city of Perm on Tuesday mourned the six people killed by a teenage gunman at a university in an incident that sent shockwaves through the community. The gunman, identified by local media as an 18-year-old student, opened fire on campus at Perm State University on Monday, prompting […]
Slack releases Clips video tool, announces 16 Salesforce integrations
Slack has been talking about expanding beyond text-based messaging for some time. Today at Dreamforce, the Salesforce customer conference taking place this week, it announced Clips, a way to leave short video messages that people can watch at their leisure. Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield sees Clips as a way to communicate with colleagues when a […]
PayPal launches its ‘super app’ combining payments, savings, bill pay, crypto, shopping and more
PayPal has been talking about its “super app” plans for some time, having recently told investors its upcoming digital wallet and payments app had been given a go for launch. Today, the first version of that app is officially being introduced, offering a combination of financial tools including direct deposit, bill pay, a digital wallet, […]
EarthOptics helps farmers look deep into the soil for big data insights
Farming sustainably and efficiently has gone from a big tractor problem to a big data problem over the last few decades, and startup EarthOptics believes the next frontier of precision agriculture lies deep in the soil. Using high-tech imaging techniques, the company claims to map the physical and chemical composition of fields faster, better, and […]
Google’s updated iOS 15 apps support Focus Mode and iPad widgets
Igor Bonifacic Contributor Igor Bonifacic is a contributing writer at Engadget. More posts by this contributor Rivian announces membership plan with complementary charging and LTE connectivity Microsoft Office 2021 will be available on October 5th With iOS 15 now available to download, developers both big and small have started updating their apps to take advantage […]
Activision says working with regulators to address workplace complaints
September 21, 2021 (Reuters) – Video game publisher Activision Blizzard said on Tuesday that it continues to work with regulators on addressing and resolving the workplace complaints it has received. On Monday, the company said the U.S. securities regulator was investigating its disclosures regarding employment matters and related issues. “There is absolutely no place anywhere […]
U.S. agency confirms air bag safety probe into 30 million vehicles
September 21, 2021 By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. auto safety investigators said on Tuesday they have opened a probe into 30 million vehicles built by nearly two dozen automakers that have potentially defective Takata air bag inflators. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened an engineering analysis into an estimated 30 million […]
Futures bounce 1% from Evergrande-led selloff
September 21, 2021 By Sagarika Jaisinghani and Ambar Warrick (Reuters) – U.S. stock futures rebounded on Tuesday as investors tried to shake off fears of contagion from a potential collapse of China’s Evergrande, although gains were capped by concerns the Federal Reserve could set out a timeline to taper its stimulus at the meeting this […]
With Gucci bags and Dyson appliances, Evergrande wooed retail investors
September 21, 2021 SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Lured by the promise of yields approaching 12%, gifts such as Dyson air purifiers and Gucci bags, and the guarantee of China’s top-selling developer, tens of thousands of investors bought wealth management products through China Evergrande Group. Now, many fear they may never get their investments back after the […]
Uber forecasts first-ever adjusted profit, shares jump 7%
September 21, 2021 (Reuters) -Uber Technologies Inc could post its first profit on an adjusted basis in the current quarter, its chief financial officer said on Tuesday, sending the ride hailing company’s shares up nearly 7% in premarket trading. “With positive adjusted EBITDA in July and August, we believe Uber is now tracking towards adjusted […]
‘This is a prison’: Mexico struggles to hold migrants far from U.S. border
September 21, 2021 By Lizbeth Diaz TAPACHULA, Mexico (Reuters) – A bid by Mexico to contain thousands of migrants on its southern border with Guatemala has created a major humanitarian headache https://ift.tt/3hlHgtc for President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and failed to prevent many from reaching the U.S. border en masse. Desperate for work, fleeing poverty […]
German Social Democrats’ lead narrows days before election
September 21, 2021 BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) saw their lead over Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives narrow in a poll published on Tuesday, pointing to a tightening race just five days before a federal election. The SPD, whose candidate for chancellor Olaf Scholz is currently vice chancellor and finance minister in Merkel’s grand […]
Blue Bear Capital raises $150M to fund climate, energy and infrastructure tech
Blue Bear Capital has raised a new $150 million fund that will be used to find and invest in startups developing technology aimed at speeding up the adoption and industrialization of renewable energy. This is the venture firm’s second fund, which it says is oversubscribed. Blue Bear has already backed nine new companies since 2020. […]
Japan’s MUFG to sell part of U.S. unit to US Bancorp for $8 billion
September 21, 2021 TOKYO (Reuters) -Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) said it has agreed to sell the personal banking arm of its U.S. unit MUFG Union Bank to US Bancorp in a cash and stock deal worth $8 billion. The payment will include $5.5 billion in cash and 44 million US Bancorp shares, or a […]
Reserve manager interest in European bonds growing, say bankers
September 21, 2021 LONDON (Reuters) – Foreign central banks and reserve managers are showing growing interest in new debt issued by the European Union and other pan-European bodies, in a positive sign for the euro’s international role, speakers told a virtual financial conference on Tuesday. The EU is selling bonds to finance a fund worth […]
Factbox-Five things to watch at Fed policy meeting this week
September 21, 2021 By Ann Saphir (Reuters) – Federal Reserve policymakers begin a two-day meeting Tuesday to discuss the U.S. jobs and inflation outlook and craft a policy response that could edge the central bank closer to dialing down its support for the economy. Here are five things to look for from the meeting, which […]