David Barret

September 15, 2021 WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden denied on Tuesday a media report that his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, last week turned down an offer from Biden for a face-to-face meeting. The Financial Times cited multiple people briefed on a 90-minute call between the two leaders last week as saying Xi did […]

September 15, 2021 By Sara Cheng HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong’s security chief called on Wednesday for the city’s main press association to disclose to the public who its members work for and how many of them are students, a day after he accused the group of infiltrating schools. The comments by Secretary for […]

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) has yet another ‘Big Tech’ GDPR probe to add to its pile: The regulator said yesterday it has opened two investigations into video sharing platform TikTok. The first covers how TikTok handles children’s data, and whether it complies with Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation. The DPC also said it will examine […]

September 15, 2021 By Tom Arnold LONDON (Reuters) – A unit in Afghanistan’s central bank leading a 15-year effort to counter illicit funding flows has halted operations, four staff members said, threatening to hasten the country’s slide out of the global financial system. Since 2006, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Center of Afghanistan (FinTRACA) […]

September 15, 2021 (Reuters) – Next year’s world cross country championships have been pushed back to 2023 due to COVID-19 travel restrictions in Australia, governing body World Athletics said on Wednesday. Australia has some of the tightest restrictions in the world aimed at preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus, including limiting the number of […]

September 15, 2021 BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Euro zone industrial production was stronger than expected in July, data showed on Wednesday, thanks to rising output of capital and non-durable consumer goods. The European Union’s statistics office Eurostat said industrial output in the 19 countries sharing the euro rose 1.5% month-on-month in July for a 7.7% year-on-year […]

September 15, 2021 TOKYO (Reuters) – Shigeru Ishiba, a heavyweight politician of Japan’s ruling party, formally announced on Wednesday that he would not run for the party’s leadership race, throwing his support instead behind Taro Kono, a top contender to become the next prime minister. There had been some speculation the former defence minister would […]

What would happened if your go-to calendar and messaging apps were in fact one and the same thing? That’s the thinking behind Onin — a UK startup that wants to simplify event planning by, well, making a more organized app for organizing stuff. If that sounds a little niche, it pays to remember that calendars […]

September 15, 2021 HONG KONG (Reuters) – The 2022 Gay Games due to be held in Hong Kong will be postponed for a year because of the coronavirus, a delay to Asia’s inaugural hosting of an event that could raise hope in a region where intolerance is common, organisers said on Wednesday. Hong Kong was […]

September 15, 2021 ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Afghanistan’s women’s soccer team has left for neighbouring Pakistan, the information minister in Islamabad said on Tuesday, as questions linger over the status of female athletes under Taliban rule. “We welcome Afghanistan women football team, they arrived at Torkham Border from Afghanistan,” said Fawad Chaudhry, Pakistan’s information minister, in […]

September 15, 2021 By Kate Abnett STRASBOURG (Reuters) – The European Union on Wednesday pledged to increase financial support to help poorer countries fight climate change and adapt to its impacts, and called on the United States also to step up. “We will now propose an additional 4 billion euros for climate finance until 2027,” […]

September 15, 2021 STRASBOURG (Reuters) – The European Union’s future hinges on its level of technological prowess, in particular access to chips crucial for everything from smartphones to electric scooters to factories, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. “Digital is the make-or-break issue,” von der Leyen said in a policy speech at European […]

September 15, 2021 By Fanny Potkin SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Norwegian telecom firm Telenor is selling its Myanmar operations to avoid European Union sanctions after “continued pressure” from Myanmar’s military junta to activate intercept surveillance technology, the company’s Asia head told Reuters. Telenor announced in July it would sell its Myanmar unit to Lebanese investment firm […]

September 15, 2021 TOKYO (Reuters) – A Japanese brokerage industry group said on Wednesday it would review the process for setting the price of initial public offerings (IPO), responding to criticism from startups that IPO prices have often been too low and surged on market debuts. The Japan Securities Dealers Association said it would set […]

September 15, 2021 MOSCOW (Reuters) – British-based firm OneWeb launched 34 satellites into orbit from a cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, expanding its in-orbit constellation to 322 satellites, it said on Wednesday. The satellites lifted off from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur cosmodrome at 1807 GMT on Tuesday, it said in a statement. OneWeb plans to launch a total of […]

September 15, 2021 DUBLIN (Reuters) -TikTok’s lead data privacy regulator in the European Union has opened two inquiries into the Chinese-owned short-video platform related to the processing of children’s personal data and transfers of personal data to China. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, which is lead EU regulator for many of the world’s top internet firms […]

September 15, 2021 BELFAST (Reuters) – Northern Irish police said on Wednesday they had arrested four men in relation to the 2019 killing of journalist Lyra McKee in Londonderry, whose death sparked outrage in the British-run province. The men, aged 19, 20, 21 and 33, were arrested under the Terrorism Act by officers investigating McKee’s […]

The distance between their farms and the nearest processor is key for smallholder farmers who need to process their crops. And though Nigeria’s food processing systems have a keen resemblance to the West with respect to big factories and huge economies of scale in high-demand cities, farmers still suffer from poor logistics networks. With distance […]

September 15, 2021 (Corrects to remove extraneous words from 4th paragraph) BEIJING (Reuters) -U.S. grain merchant Archer-Daniels-Midland Co said on Wednesday that it had launched a new flavour production facility in China to meet growing demand for beverages and healthy foods. The new facility – ADM Food Technology (Pinghu) Co Ltd, located in the eastern […]

September 15, 2021 MADRID (Reuters) – Fashion brand Zara owner Inditex rebounded with an 850 million euro second-quarter profit on Wednesday as sales topped pre-pandemic levels, outshining Swedish rival H&M. The world’s biggest fashion retailer’s sales bounced back and slightly surpassed the level seen before the pandemic as most stores reopened and people rushed to […]