September 8, 2021 By Ana Mano and Nayara Figueiredo SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian truckers have staged demonstrations and partially blocked key routes in several states, according to a federal highway police bulletin seen by Reuters on Wednesday, though grains exporters said shipments have not been affected. Truckers were still partially blocking highways at 5:30 […]
Colombian lawmakers approve $4 billion tax reform after protests
September 8, 2021 By Carlos Vargas BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombian lawmakers have passed a tax bill set to raise $4 billion annually, the final step in long-running efforts by the government of President Ivan Duque to get a fiscal reform through Congress. Duque’s government has insisted the law is vital at a time of rising […]
‘Failure is not a crime,’ defense says in trial of Theranos founder Holmes
September 8, 2021 By Jody Godoy SAN JOSE, Calif. (Reuters) -Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes is not a villain but rather a hard-working, young and naive businesswoman whose company simply failed, her lawyer told jurors on Wednesday at the former Silicon Valley star’s trial on fraud charges involving the now-defunct blood-testing startup once valued at $9 […]
Money, mimicry and mind control: Big Tech slams ethics brakes on AI
September 8, 2021 By Paresh Dave and Jeffrey Dastin SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – In September last year, Google’s cloud unit looked into using artificial intelligence to help a financial firm decide whom to lend money to. It turned down the client’s idea after weeks of internal discussions, deeming the project too ethically dicey because the […]
Exclusive-U.S. airlines to back jump in sustainable aviation fuel use by 2030 -sources
September 8, 2021 WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Major U.S. airlines plan to announce on Thursday that they will back a voluntary industry target of using 3 billion gallons of sustainable aviation fuel in 2030 as the White House looks to reduce aviation sector emissions, sources told Reuters. Airlines for America, an industry trade group, in March […]
Democrats will not raise debt limit in $3.5 trillion bill -Pelosi
September 8, 2021 By Susan Cornwell and Richard Cowan WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Democrats will not include a provision to raise the federal government’s borrowing limit in a $3.5 trillion “reconciliation” spending measure they hope to pass this autumn, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday. Pelosi said the $28.5 trillion debt limit must be raised, but […]
Brazil chief justice rebuffs Bolsonaro, speaker calls for calm
September 8, 2021 BRASILIA (Reuters) -The chief justice of Brazil’s Supreme Court said on Wednesday that President Jair Bolsonaro was undermining the top court by encouraging people to disobey its rulings after the far-right leader said he would not accept decisions by one of its justices. “The Supreme Court will not tolerate threats to the […]
Who to blame for Taliban takeover? Former Afghan envoy points finger at Kabul
September 8, 2021 By Phil Stewart WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Roya Rahmani, Afghanistan’s first female ambassador to the United States who left her post in July, is clearly horrified by the Taliban takeover of her country. But she is not surprised. In an interview, Rahmani accused the former U.S.-backed government in Kabul of a failure to […]
Pro-China social media campaign expands to new countries, blames U.S. for COVID
September 8, 2021 (Changes reference from COVID-10 to COVID-19.) By Joseph Menn SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -A misinformation campaign on social media in support of Chinese government interests has expanded to new languages and platforms, and it even tried to get people to show up to protests in the United States, researchers said on Wednesday. Experts […]
El Salvador president gets hands-on to fix bitcoin rollout glitches
September 8, 2021 By Nelson Renteria SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) -Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele stepped in on Wednesday to manage the fraught roll-out of a payments app that underpins the nation’s adoption of bitcoin as legal tender, and called on users to report any problems on his Twitter feed. Adopting language similar to IT departments in […]
Rocket Lab’s order backlog tops $141M as the company inks five-launch deal with Kinéis
It was a busy first half of the year for U.S.-New Zealand company Rocket Lab, which posted earnings for the first six months of 2021 on Wednesday – the first such reporting since the company went public last month. Rocket Lab reported revenues for the six-month period of $29.5 million. Its order backlog also grew […]
The 4 things needed to reach Biden’s ambitious 2050 solar goal
A report on the future of solar energy from the Department of Energy paints a sunny picture, if you will, of the next three decades, at the end of which nearly half the country’s energy will be provided by the sun. But for that to happen, big pushes need to happen along four major lines: […]
Soccer – Southgate defends zero subs strategy after Poland draw
September 8, 2021 WARSAW (Reuters) – England manager Gareth Southgate defended his decision not to use any substitutes in the 1-1 World Cup qualifying draw against Poland on Wednesday. The Poles used all five of their substitutes during the game and ended strongly, grabbing their equaliser in stoppage time. “We were playing well, we were […]
U.S. charges former Ericsson employee over bribery scheme
September 8, 2021 By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. authorities on Wednesday charged a former employee of Swedish telecommunications equipment maker Ericsson with scheming to bribe Djibouti government officials in order to win business with a state-owned telecommunications company. The U.S. Department of Justice said Afework Bereket, 53, a former employee of Ericsson […]
WestJet Airlines says unvaccinated employees to face unpaid leave or termination
September 8, 2021 (Reuters) – Canada’s WestJet Airlines said on Wednesday all employees who fail to attest their vaccination status by Sept. 24, or get fully vaccinated by Oct. 30, will face unpaid leave or termination of employment. In the face of a resurgence in COVID-19 cases, spurred by the highly contagious Delta coronavirus variant, […]
ECB may dial back support but won’t take it away just yet
September 8, 2021 By Balazs Koranyi and Francesco Canepa FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The European Central Bank is expected to claw back stimulus on Thursday, taking a token step towards unwinding the emergency economic aid it put in place during the pandemic while still signalling copious support for years to come. The ECB pulled out all […]
Half of Morocco’s electorate voted in parliamentary elections
September 8, 2021 By Ahmed Eljechtimi RABAT (Reuters) -Morocco said turnout in Wednesday’s parliamentary election was just over 50%, higher than in 2016 after authorities combined it with local elections that traditionally draw better participation. New voting rules were expected to make it harder for bigger parties to win as many seats as before, something […]
Canada’s Conservatives pledge big spending, deficit reduction in election platform
September 8, 2021 By Steve Scherer OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada’s Conservative Party is proposing C$52 billion ($41 billion) in new spending over the next four years to boost growth and create jobs while reducing the deficit more quickly than their Liberal rivals, according to figures released on Wednesday. Conservative leader Erin O’Toole released his platform […]
Daily Crunch: Google rolls out new Workspace features for all users
To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. Hi friends! Welcome to the Daily Crunch for Wednesday, September 8, 2021. Alex is still out, so I’ll be steering this ship for a few more days while (I hope) he stares […]
Tennis – Bencic hopes teenagers Raducanu, Fernandez are protected from hype
September 8, 2021 NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. Open semi-finalists Emma Raducanu and Leylah Fernandez must be protected from the hype and pressure that the teenagers are likely to encounter in the coming months after their New York heroics, Olympic champion Belinda Bencic said on Wednesday. British 18-year-old Raducanu brushed aside Bencic 6-3 6-4 to […]
