News

September 16, 2021 By Sarah N. Lynch WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Olympic gymnast Simone Biles held back tears on Wednesday, as she told lawmakers how the FBI and U.S. gymnastic and Olympic officials failed to stop the sexual abuse that she and hundreds of other athletes suffered from former doctor Larry Nassar. “To be clear, I blame […]

A16z is inching closer to making its first investment in a startup in India, the world’s second largest internet market that has produced over two dozen unicorns this year. The Menlo Park-headquartered firm is in final stages of conversations to invest in Indian crypto trading startup CoinSwitch Kuber, three sources familiar with the matter told […]

Meet Liveblocks, a startup that has been working on a set of APIs so that it’s easier to build a collaborative product. Essentially, it lets you create multiplayer experiences on the web or in your app. The company started with a live presence state API. If you integrate this API in your product, it means […]

September 16, 2021 By Kantaro Komiya TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan cut its economic view for the first time in four months as a surge in COVID-19 cases disrupted manufacturers’ global supply chains and dampened consumer confidence. In a monthly assessment approved by the cabinet on Thursday, the government pointed to domestic and overseas virus situations […]

September 16, 2021 DUBLIN (Reuters) – Ryanair on Thursday raised its long-term traffic forecast and expects to fly 225 million passengers a year by 2026, up from 200 million previously as it eyes a strong recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Irish airline said the planned delivery of 210 Boeing 737 MAX jets over the […]

September 16, 2021 BERLIN (Reuters) – European car registrations dropped in July and August after four months of growth, industry data showed on Thursday, suggesting that a global semiconductor shortage is hitting sales in car dealerships across Europe. New passenger car registrations fell by 23.6% and 18.1% year-on-year in July and August, respectively, in the […]

September 16, 2021 (Reuters) – Cigarette maker Philip Morris International (PMI) said on Thursday it had received about 75% of Vectura shares from shareholders as part of a public tender offer process to acquire the British company. “We have reached an important milestone in our acquisition of Vectura and are pleased to have secured over […]

September 16, 2021 By Kirsty Needham SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia will build eight nuclear-powered submarines under a new Indo-Pacific security partnership with the United States and Britain that analysts say will likely rile China, which will see the pact as an attempt to contain it. Australia will be only the second country after Britain in […]

September 16, 2021 BEIRUT (Reuters) – Hezbollah began bringing Iranian fuel into Lebanon via Syria on Thursday, its al-Manar TV said, a move the Shi’ite group says aims to ease a crippling energy crisis but which its opponents have said exposes the country to the risk of U.S. sanctions. Quoting its correspondent, al-Manar TV said […]

September 16, 2021 (Reuters) – China is reviewing new games to ensure they meet stricter criteria for content and protection of children, Bloomberg News said on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. The media watchdog is re-evaluating titles submitted for approval by game developers from Tencent Holdings Ltd to Netease Inc to make sure […]

September 16, 2021 SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China’s regulatory crackdown has ensnared sectors from technology to education to property, wiping hundreds of billions off the market capitalisations of some of its largest companies and putting investors on alert over who may be next. Here are some of the largest names that have been affected so far: […]

September 16, 2021 By Clare Jim and Andrew Galbraith HONG KONG/SHANGHAI (Reuters) -China Evergrande Group’s main unit, Hengda Real Estate Group Co Ltd, applied on Thursday to suspend trading of its onshore corporate bonds following a downgrade, as the country’s No.2 property developer wrestles with a liquidity crisis. The application follows repeated trading freezes of […]

September 16, 2021 By Fergal Smith TORONTO (Reuters) – Foreign investors are growing more worried that Canada’s federal election on Monday could result in a deadlock that hampers Ottawa’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and further slows the economic recovery from the crisis. Polls show Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s center-left Liberals virtually tied with the […]

September 16, 2021 BENGALURU (Reuters) – Shares of Vodafone Idea Ltd surged nearly 20% on Thursday while banks with exposure to the embattled telecom firm also climbed, a day after India’s federal cabinet approved a relief package for the cash-strapped sector. The relief package includes a four-year moratorium on airwaves payments due to the government, […]

September 16, 2021 MANILA (Reuters) – The United Nations children’s agency UNICEF has urged education authorities to reopen schools as soon as possible in countries where millions of students are still not allowed to return to classrooms 18 months into the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools in around 17 countries remain fully closed, while those in 39 […]

September 16, 2021 SOFIA (Reuters) -Bulgarian President Rumen Radev re-appointed incumbent caretaker premier Stefan Yanev to lead an interim administration until a new government is formed, the official state gazette showed on Thursday. The European Union’s poorest member state will hold its third parliamentary elections this year on Nov. 14, after inconclusive polls in April […]

French startup Skello has raised a $47.3 million funding round (€40 million). The company has been working on a software-as-a-service tool that lets you manage the work schedule of your company. What makes it special is that Skello automatically takes into account local labor laws and collective agreements. Partech is leading today’s funding round. Existing […]

Delegate Connect founders Jordan Walsh and Jacob Thomas Delegate Connect is the latest virtual/hybrid events platform to land funding. The Melbourne-based startup announced today it has raised $10 million AUD (about $7.3 million USD) in seed funding led by AirTree Ventures, which wrote Delegate Connect the biggest seed check in the fund’s history so far. […]

September 16, 2021 (Fixes typo in para 13) By Rupam Jain (Reuters) -The Taliban’s abrupt return to power has left hundreds of Afghan diplomats overseas in limbo: running out of money to keep missions operating, fearful for families back home and desperate to secure refuge abroad.     The Islamist militant movement, which swiftly ousted Afghanistan’s Western-backed […]

September 16, 2021 (Reuters) – Former United States captain Paul Azinger has questioned Brooks Koepka’s commitment to the Ryder Cup after the four-times major winner described the biennial event as “a bit odd” and said he might not be cut out for team sports. In an interview with Golf Digest this week, Koepka said the […]