News

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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: […]

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

September 8, 2021 MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Wednesday that upcoming high-level economic talks with the United States will focus on infrastructure along the border to facilitate trade and movement of people, semiconductors and cybersecurity. Mexico will use the so-called High-Level Economic Dialogue on Sept. 9 with the United […]

September 8, 2021 By David Shepardson and Sanjana Shivdas WASHINGTON (Reuters) -United Airlines employees who receive religious exemptions from the company for COVID-19 vaccinations will be placed on temporary, unpaid personal leave from Oct. 2, the U.S. airline said in a Wednesday memo to staff. The company said the employees will be allowed to return […]

September 8, 2021 By Sharon Bernstein SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) – Vice President Kamala Harris campaigned on Wednesday for embattled California Governor Gavin Newsom, part of a ramped-up effort to save his job from a Republican-led recall by bringing in some of the Democratic Party’s biggest names. Harris, a longtime ally of Newsom, appeared with the […]

Earlier this year, Apple officially discontinued Music Memos, an iPhone app that allowed musicians to quickly record audio and develop new song ideas. Now, a new startup called Tape It is stepping in to fill the void with an app that improves audio recordings by offering a variety of features, including higher-quality sound, automatic instrument […]

“Conversational AI” startup PolyAI, based out of London, has raised $14 million in a funding round led by Silicon Valley’s Khosla Ventures, with participation from existing investors (Point72 Ventures, Amadeus Capital, Sands Capital Ventures, Passion Capital and Entrepreneur First). This follows their $12m Series A, and will provide resources for further US expansion beyond its […]

September 8, 2021 WARSAW (Reuters) – Damian Szymanski headed in a stoppage time equaliser as Poland ended England’s 100% record in Group I to draw their World Cup qualifier 1-1 on Wednesday. Harry Kane had fired England ahead with a swerving strike in the 72nd minute as Gareth Southgate’s side looked set for a sixth […]

September 8, 2021 PRISTINA (Reuters) -Goals from Pablo Fornals and Ferran Torres earned Spain a 2-0 victory away to Kosovo in World Cup qualifying Group B on Wednesday and dragged them back into automatic qualification contention. Fornals produced a fine near-post finish from the angle on 32 minutes after smart build-up play from Carlos Soler […]

September 8, 2021 TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) – The central banks of Honduras and Guatemala are eying digital currencies, officials said on Wednesday, following El Salvador’s adoption of bitcoin as legal currency. The central bank presidents for Honduras and Guatemala both said the banks were studying digital currencies with the aim of eventually introducing them into the […]