News

October 5, 2021 ZURICH (Reuters) – Three members of the Vatican Swiss Guards, the elite colourfully dressed corps that protects the pope, have decided to resign rather than be vaccinated against COVID-19, Swiss newspaper Tribune de Geneva reported. Following the Holy See’s implementation of new COVID-19 measures, three Swiss guards have departed on a “voluntary” […]

October 5, 2021 (Reuters) – Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady became the NFL’s all-time leader in passing yards during Sunday’s 19-17 win at New England and the 44-year-old thanked current and former team mates for helping him reach the “amazing statistic”. Brady was back at the Patriots’ home for the first time since he […]

October 5, 2021 PARIS (Reuters) -France’s President Emmanuel Macron said the forthcoming G20 summit must send a clear message to Afghanistan’s Taliban on the conditions for international recognition. In an interview with France Inter radio station broadcast on Tuesday, Macron said those conditions must include equality for women, access for foreign humanitarian operations and non-cooperation […]

October 5, 2021 By Guy Faulconbridge LONDON (Reuters) – The United Kingdom’s 25-year-old model of importing cheap labour has been up-ended by Brexit and COVID-19, sowing the seeds for a 1970s-style winter of discontent complete with worker shortages, spiralling wage demands and price rises. Leaving the European Union, followed by the chaos of the biggest […]

October 5, 2021 MANILA (Reuters) – The son and namesake of late Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos will file his candidacy for president in next year’s elections on Tuesday, the Philippine Star reported. Ferdinand Marcos Jr, 64, popularly known as “Bongbong”, has been involved in politics since his return in 1991 from exile following his father’s […]

October 5, 2021 By Charlotte Bruneau and Kawa Omar SHILADZE, Iraq (Reuters) – Despite the risk of getting stranded in Europe or perishing on the way there, scores of people from a single town in Iraq’s Kurdish region have opted to be smuggled into European Union countries via Belarus, local smugglers and officials say. One […]

October 5, 2021 PARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that he hoped diplomatic tensions with Algeria would soon ease. “My wish is that is that we can calm things down because I think it is better to talk to one another, and to make progress,” Macron told France Inter radio in […]

October 5, 2021 (Reuters) – The Japanese government will look into the right timing to restart a popular subsidised travel programme that was suspended late last year as coronavirus infections spread, broadcaster NHK reported on Tuesday, citing tourism minister Tetsuo Saito. Saito, the newly appointed minister for land, infrastructure, transport and tourism, also said at […]

  Book sales during the pandemic went up, and it seems the amount we are reading did, too. And Inkitt, the startup that operates a free, popular platform of the same name for anyone to write and publish stories — stories that Inkitt then analyses using data science to determine which of them to take […]

October 5, 2021 By Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi ZURICH (Reuters) – Swiss Re has estimated its preliminary claims burden from Hurricane Ida at $750 million, the reinsurer said on Tuesday, while updating its loss estimate for the July floods in Europe to approximately $520 million. Hurricane Ida’s damage to U.S. offshore energy production made it one of […]

Licious, a Bangalore-based startup that sells fresh meat and seafood online, said on Tuesday it has raised $52 million in a new financing round and become the first direct-to-consumer startup to attain the unicorn status in the world’s second largest internet market. The new round — a Series G — was led by Mumbai-headquartered IIFL. […]

Jonathan Abrams and Kent Lindstrom have partnered on a lot of things over the years. Lindstrom was an advisor and investor at the early social networking service Friendster, founded by Abrams. He was also the COO of social news aggregator Nuzzel, which was founded by Abrams and that sold to a subscription startup called Scroll […]

October 5, 2021 By Lewis Krauskopf NEW YORK (Reuters) – Technology stocks are bearing the brunt of a recent market selloff, putting a spotlight on how an extended downturn in the sector could weigh on broader equity indexes. After Monday’s sharp drop, the S&P 500 technology sector is down 6.7% since the overall S&P 500 […]

October 5, 2021 By Michael Nienaber and Rene Wagner BERLIN (Reuters) – Chancellor Angela Merkel has steered Germany through many crises over the past 16 years, but she has also left behind a mixed legacy and failed to tackle some deep structural problems in Europe’s largest economy. Despite a “golden decade” of uninterrupted growth and […]

October 5, 2021 By David Lawder and Andrea Shalal WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Having waited eight months for U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai’s promised “top-to-bottom” policy review of trade with China, some U.S. industries and experts were complaining over the plan’s lack of specifics on negotiations or timing. Unveiling her plan on Monday, Tai, President Joe […]

European VC Eight Roads is launching its fourth fund of $450 million for European and Israeli tech companies , aiming for another 15-20 across a broad range of consumer, software-as-a-service, fintech and healthtech areas. Cheque sizes wil range from around $5 million to $50 million per company, and as such, it tends to play more […]

October 5, 2021 TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s government will take all necessary measures to support the economy, which has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, new economy minister Daishiro Yamagiwa said on Tuesday. Yamagiwa, who is one of 13 fresh faces in the cabinet of new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, told reporters at his […]

October 5, 2021 LONDON (Reuters) – British new car registrations fell last month by 35% year on year to 214,000 units, according to preliminary industry data on Tuesday that marked the weakest September for at least 23 years. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said the auto industry continued to be plagued by a […]

October 5, 2021 By Tushar Goenka BENGALURU (Reuters) – India’s economic recovery from pandemic-related shutdowns is at risk of a further delay in the six months that are left of this fiscal year, according to economists in a Reuters poll, who expect elevated inflation to hold or accelerate, not fall. Price pressures in the world’s […]

October 5, 2021 By Clare Jim HONG KONG (Reuters) – As investors were abuzz on Tuesday with cash-strapped China Evergrande Group’s possible sale of a stake in a unit to raise as much as $5 billion, more Chinese property developers grappled with ratings downgrades on worries about their ability to repay debt. Evergrande is facing […]