October 6, 2021 By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) -Bitcoin surged on Wednesday to its highest level in five months, as market sentiment continued to improve due in part to news a hedge fund controlled by billionaire investor George Soros trades bitcoin. Investors also expect a seasonal rally in cryptocurrencies this quarter. The world’s largest […]
Bank of America offers $200 to vaccinated Merrill staffers going to office
October 6, 2021 (Reuters) – Bank of America Corp will pay out $200 awards to its employees at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management who have been fully vaccinated and going to office regularly, according to a memo shared with Reuters on Wednesday. The awards will be offered to client associates, administrative support and operations staff at […]
IMF board to meet again on Georgieva review on Friday – source
October 6, 2021 WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund’s executive board will meet again on Friday after interviewing Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on Wednesday over claims that she pressured World Bank staff to alter data to favor China, a source familiar with the deliberations said. An IMF spokesperson confirmed that the board met with […]
Amazon sued by warehouse workers over COVID-19 screening pay
October 6, 2021 By Daniel Wiessner (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc has been accused of violating Colorado state law by failing to pay warehouse workers for time spent undergoing COVID-19 screenings before clocking in at work. Jennifer Vincenzetti, who worked at two Amazon warehouses in Colorado Springs, filed a proposed class action in Colorado federal court […]
GM aims to build Netflix-sized subscription business by 2030
General Motors said it expects its in-car subscription services to generate nearly $2 billion in revenue this year and will reach as high as $25 billion by the end of the decade, an amount the company said Wednesday will put it in the same league as Netflix, Peloton and Spotify. The automaker has 16 million […]
U.N. urges Ethiopia to allow unhindered aid as famine looms
October 6, 2021 UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Ethiopia’s government on Wednesday to allow the world body to deliver humanitarian aid to millions in the country’s north “without hindrance.” During a U.N. Security Council meeting, Guterres urged Ethiopia’s government to allow “unrestricted movement of desperately needed fuel, cash, communications […]
U.S., China agree in principle for virtual leaders meeting by year-end
October 6, 2021 WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States and China reached an agreement in principle for U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to hold a virtual meeting before the end of the year, a senior U.S. administration official said on Wednesday. The official made the comment to reporters following a meeting […]
EU to back five-year targets at COP26 climate talks
October 6, 2021 By Kate Abnett BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union on Wednesday agreed to back five-year climate targets at the COP26 climate change conference, where countries will attempt to finalise the rules needed to put the Paris Agreement into effect. At the COP26 summit, to be held in Glasgow from Oct. 31 to […]
White House moves to restore key environmental review rules
October 6, 2021 By Valerie Volcovici WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The White House on Wednesday took the first step to restore federal regulations guiding environmental reviews of major infrastructure projects like highways and pipelines, which were scaled back by the Trump administration that sought to fast-track them. The White House Council for Environmental Quality said it will […]
German foreign minister condemns reported anti-Semitic insult to musician
October 6, 2021 BERLIN (Reuters) – German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Wednesday he was shocked by an anti-Semitic insult a Jewish musician said he had suffered at a hotel in Leipzig and that such behaviour had no place in Germany. In a case that has hit national headlines, Gil Ofarim, 39, posted a […]
Analysis-If Facebook is the problem, is a social media regulator the fix?
October 6, 2021 By Elizabeth Culliford WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen told Congress on Tuesday that one option for making social media less harmful would be to create a dedicated regulatory agency to oversee companies like Facebook, which could have former tech workers on staff. “Right now, the only people in the world who […]
U.S. Senate to delay vote on suspending debt ceiling -senators
October 6, 2021 WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate will postpone a vote planned for Wednesday afternoon to suspend the federal government’s $28.4 trillion debt ceiling, four Republican senators and a Democratic aide said. It was not immediately clear when the postponed vote would be held. (Reporting by Susan Cornwell and Richard Cowan; Editing by […]
Venezuela says IMF has not delivered COVID-19 funds amid dispute
October 6, 2021 CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said on Wednesday that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has not yet delivered funds under a program to help countries battle the COVID-19 pandemic, amid a dispute over the government’s legitimacy. In August, the IMF authorized Venezuela to receive around $5 billion in Special […]
Creators of molecule-building precision tools win Chemistry Nobel
October 6, 2021 By Niklas Pollard, Ludwig Burger and Simon Johnson STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – German Benjamin List and Scottish-born David MacMillan won the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday for developing new tools for building molecules that have helped make new drugs and are more environmentally friendly. Their work on asymmetric organocatalysis, which the […]
Colombia deploys 14,000-strong military unit in restive border region
October 6, 2021 By Luis Jaime Acosta CUCUTA, Colombia (Reuters) – Colombia deployed a new unit of 14,000 military personnel on Wednesday to increase government control of a conflict hotspot near the Venezuelan border, where multiple armed groups compete for control of cocaine production. The new unit, known by CENOR, deployed in the northeastern province […]
NSO ended Pegasus contract with UAE over Dubai leader’s hacking
October 6, 2021 By Michael Holden LONDON (Reuters) -The Israeli-based NSO Group ended its contract with the United Arab Emirates to use its powerful “Pegasus” state spyware tool because Dubai’s ruler was using it to hack the phones of his ex-wife and some close to her, her lawyers told England’s High Court. Sheikh Mohammed bin […]
‘Fantasy equity’ NFT game wants you to spend real money buying fake shares of real startups
The meme-ification of ownership and the wild acceleration of private startup valuations have led us to this moment where a former VC firm associate has built a crypto marketplace designed for “fantasy startup investing,” where users spend real money buying fakes shares — in NFT form, of course — of real startups. The game, which […]
Pinterest rolls out new shopping features for advertisers
Pinterest is rolling out new features for advertisers and brands to promote their products to users on its site. The launch marks the company’s latest initiative to grow online shopping and advertising on its platform. A new ‘slideshow for collections’ feature pulls products from brands’ catalogues and automatically turns them into a ‘collections ad.’ Pinterest […]
OpenStack gains new momentum, as deployments increase during the pandemic
OpenStack, the open-source project that gives large enterprises and public cloud providers the tools to run their own AWS-like private clouds in their data centers, today announced the release of OpenStack 24. Codenamed Xena, the release focuses on polishing many of the system’s sharper edges. It’s no secret that the OpenStack project, which now falls […]
Driving AI innovation in tandem with regulation
Will Uppington Contributor Share on Twitter Will Uppington is the CEO and co-founder of TruEra. The European Commission announced first-of-its-kind legislation regulating the use of artificial intelligence in April. This unleashed criticism that the regulations could slow AI innovation, hamstringing Europe in its competition with the U.S. and China for leadership in AI. For example, […]
