October 4, 2021 WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Biden administration believes the World Trade Organization has a “very important role” to play in the context of U.S. concerns about China’s failure to adhere to global trading norms, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said on Monday. Tai told an event hosted by the Center for Strategic and […]
Macron to pitch greater EU role in Indo-Pacific after AUKUS crisis
October 4, 2021 PARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron will tell his European peers the AUKUS crisis could be an opportunity to make the case to the United States that the European Union can play a strategic role in the Indo-Pacific, French officials said on Monday. Australia’s decision to cancel a big submarine contract […]
Lebanon’s former PM Diab says he gave up shares in company mentioned in ‘Pandora Papers’
October 4, 2021 BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon’s former prime minister Hassan Diab said on Monday he had given up shares in a company he was linked to in a leak of financial documents, and denied wrongdoing. A statement by his office said he had taken part in founding the company in 2015 and owned 17 […]
Hundreds rally in Georgia to call for release of jailed ex-president
October 4, 2021 RUSTAVI, Georgia (Reuters) – Hundreds of Georgians rallied on Monday to demand the release of hunger-striking ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili, who was jailed last week after returning from exile and calling for post-election protests. Saakashvili, who was sentenced in absentia in Georgia in 2018 for abuse of power and concealing evidence when he […]
Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp are all down
Global users are experiencing outages on Facebook, including all social networks the company owns, which include Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp. When navigating to these websites, a server error will appear — Instagram shows a “5xx server error,” which indicates that this is an issue with Facebook’s servers. Users are also unable to send messages or […]
U.S. factory orders gain steam as manufacturing keeps humming
October 4, 2021 By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New orders for U.S.-made goods accelerated in August, pointing to sustained strength in manufacturing even as economic growth appeared to have slowed in the third quarter because of shortages of raw materials and labor. The Commerce Department said on Monday that factory orders increased 1.2% in […]
Fed’s Bullard: U.S. businesses having no problems raising prices
October 4, 2021 (Reuters) – U.S. businesses are having few problems raising prices on customers for the first time in years, St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard said on Monday, as he warned that inflation could remain elevated for some time to come amid fears higher expectations become entrenched. Bullard’s business contacts in […]
‘Venom’, Bond pull in 4 million people to AMC theaters over weekend
October 4, 2021 (Reuters) – Nearly 4 million people worldwide flocked to theaters owned by AMC Entertainment over the weekend to watch “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” and the latest James Bond film, setting a record since the movie halls were reopened after being shut for more than a year. Moviegoers are returning to theaters […]
Envoys agree to restate EU’s membership guarantee for Balkans at summit
October 4, 2021 BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union leaders will be able to restate their guarantee of future membership to six Balkan countries on Wednesday at a summit, after EU ambassadors agreed a text on Monday, a senior EU official said. After weeks of disagreement over the wording of a summit declaration for Wednesday’s gathering […]
‘Made of Air’, a maker of ‘carbon negative’ thermoplastics, locks in $5.8M
Berlin-based climate tech startup, ‘Made of Air‘, has closed a €5 million (~$5.8M) seed funding round, led by Norwegian sustainability-focused family fund, TD Veen. Also participating are Patrick Pichette (former CFO of Google & chairman of the Board of Twitter), EQT Group, Thomas Von Koch (CEO & cofounder of EQT Group), Tuesday Capital, the co-founders […]
Jared Spataro will talk about building Microsoft’s SaaS business at TC Sessions: SaaS
Jared Spataro has been with Microsoft for more than 15 years now, and he has been part of the transition from an on-prem software company to a SaaS business. Today his official title is corporate vp in charge of the company’s biggest SaaS product, Office 365. Spataro is going to join us on October 27th […]
Germany’s Merkel to visit Israel next week, PM Bennett says
October 4, 2021 JERUSALEM (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel will travel to Israel next week for a farewell visit before her expected departure from office after 16 years in power, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Monday. Merkel had cancelled a planned Aug. 28-30 trip to Israel, citing the tense situation in Afghanistan […]
Explainer-Blending chalk and cheese: assembling a government for Germany
October 4, 2021 By Thomas Escritt BERLIN (Reuters) – Whether the Social Democrats’ Olaf Scholz or a conservative becomes the next German chancellor, they will probably need to bring into their coalition two smaller parties that are far apart on many of the issues that will shape Germany’s future. Any majority will rest on the […]
Japan’s new PM calls Oct. 31 election, vows to fight pandemic
October 4, 2021 By Elaine Lies and Ju-min Park TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan’s new prime minister, Fumio Kishida, on Monday called a parliamentary election for Oct. 31 and vowed to bolster the country’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, shortly after being formally confirmed by lawmakers in the top job. Kishida, a 64-year-old former foreign minister with […]
Belgian Holocaust survivor acts out his story on stage to mark 90th birthday
October 4, 2021 By Gabriela Baczynska BRUSSELS (Reuters) – In a rundown old factory in Belgium, Holocaust survivor Simon Gronowski celebrated his upcoming 90th birthday on Sunday by starring in an opera inspired by his life – a history of love, faith and forgiveness overcoming the darkest tragedy. Gronowski was 11 years old and living […]
Italy’s PD leader Letta seen winning Siena parliamentary seat – early count
October 4, 2021 ROME (Reuters) – The leader of Italy’s centre-left Democratic Party (PD) Enrico Letta is on track to win a parliamentary by-election in Siena, early results showed on Monday, strengthening his position as party leader. Letta had said he would resign from the PD leadership if he lost, so the outcome has political […]
Qualcomm acquires Veoneer for $4.5 billion, canceling its agreement with Magna
Qualcomm scored the purchase of Swedish automotive tech company Veoneer, nudging out Magna International with a higher bid. Qualcomm and investment group SSW Partners said Monday they would acquire Veoneer for $37 per share in an all-cash transaction. At closing, SSW said it would sell Veoneer’s Arriver tech – an advanced driver assistance system stack […]
Motor racing-Domenicali says a third of F1 races could be sprint format
October 4, 2021 LONDON (Reuters) – Formula One will have a record 23 races next year and a third of them could be in the sprint format trialled this year, the sport’s chief executive Stefano Domenicali said on Monday. The format has been used at Silverstone and Monza this year, with Brazil’s Interlagos to come, […]
Back in black: U.S. Supreme Court opens its momentous new term
October 4, 2021 By Lawrence Hurley and Andrew Chung WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Supreme Court justices donned their black robes and sat once more behind a mahogany bench in their grand courtroom on Monday as they resumed in-person oral arguments for the first time since COVID-19 pandemic disruptions started last year. The nine justices were joined […]
U.S. Supreme Court rebuffs Oracle challenge to Pentagon cloud contract
October 4, 2021 By Andrew Chung WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday put an end to Oracle Corp’s challenge to how the Pentagon awarded the government’s now-canceled $10 billion JEDI cloud computing contract. The justices declined to hear Oracle’s appeal of a lower court ruling that found that the Austin, Texas-based business […]
