News

September 30, 2021 By Robert Muller and Jan Lopatka PRAGUE (Reuters) -The Czech National Bank (CNB) raised its main rate by 75 basis points on Thursday, an even heftier policy tightening than markets and analysts had expected, delivering its biggest hike since 1997 as inflation soars. The two-week repo rate stands at 1.50% after the […]

Activ Surgical, a Boston-based digital surgery company, announced a $45 million Series B round on Thursday. The round comes during a critical year for Activ Surgical. It’s in the process of developing new tools that give surgeons the ability to see otherwise invisible structures, and has plans to roll out those tools in the coming […]

Silicon Valley-based venture capital (VC) firm Benhamou Global Ventures, known as BGV, closed its fourth fund with $110 million to support global enterprise companies. The new fund is 60% larger than its third fund and will be invested similarly, in seed and Series A startups focused on what general partner Anik Bose said the firm […]

September 30, 2021 By Alan Baldwin LONDON (Reuters) – Qatar’s 10-year deal with Formula One announced on Thursday will boost the balance sheet of a sport recovering from the hit of COVID-19 as well as further raising the profile of the Middle East in an increasingly global championship. Formula One had not raced in the […]

September 30, 2021 BERLIN (Reuters) – Carmaker Opel, which is part of the Stellantis group, said on Thursday it will close one of its plants in Germany until at least the end of the year due to chip shortages. Production at the Eisenach plant, which makes internal combustion engine and hybrid electric cars, should start […]

September 30, 2021 MADRID (Reuters) – Banks in Europe need more dynamic regulation to enable them to improve their profitability and catch up with their peers in the United States, the head of European Banking Federation (EBF), Ana Botin, said on Thursday. Europe’s banks have tended to lag their U.S. rivals in terms of valuation […]

September 30, 2021 By Padraic Halpin DUBLIN (Reuters) -Ireland on Thursday doubled its forecast for economic growth this year but will not increase its budget package for 2021 as it aims to get the public finances in “far safer” shape than previously expected, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said on Thursday. Finance ministry chief economist John […]

September 30, 2021 (Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures rose on Thursday, indicating a slightly positive end to a bruising month for Wall Street, with focus turning toward economic data and government funding negotiations. Jobless claims data, due at 08:30 a.m. ET, is expected to point to a steady recovery in the jobs market, while […]

September 30, 2021 By Hideyuki Sano and Divya Chowdhury TOKYO/MUMBAI (Reuters) – Investors see Japan’s new leader, Fumio Kishida, as a steady consensus-builder who can lead the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner to victory in a general election due in November. But while Japanese equities are expected to benefit from Kishida’s market-friendly […]

September 30, 2021 BERLIN (Reuters) – German car parts maker Continental announced plans for a restructuring that will combine from the start of next year business activities around connectivity, mobility, and high-performance computers, it said on Thursday. Its tires business and the ContiTech division, focused on rubber technologies, will become independent group sectors, while its […]

Gifting has become a major lever in the world of building business relationships in the last 20 months. With in-person meetings reduced to a trickle, sending a gift to a colleague or business associate has become a more personalized way to reward, curry favor, or just keep in touch beyond the basics of pinging each […]

September 30, 2021 ISTANBUL (Reuters) -Turkey is considering more joint defence industry steps with Russia including for fighter jets and submarines, President Tayyip Erdogan said after talks with President Vladimir Putin, despite a U.S. warning of further sanctions. On the return flight to Turkey from the talks, Erdogan told reporters he also proposed working with […]

September 30, 2021 By David Kirton ZHUHAI, China (Reuters) – China put on an extravagant display of once-secret high-end military technology at its largest air show this week, while broadcasting its growing ambitions in space exploration and for self-sufficiency in commercial aircraft. Pandemic-related travel restrictions meant Airshow China in the southern city of Zhuhai was […]

September 30, 2021 By Anton Zverev and Tom Balmforth MOSCOW (Reuters) -The editor of a Russian news outlet that angered the Kremlin with its investigations, including into the poisoning of opposition politician Alexei Navalny, said the authorities had declared him a wanted man. Roman Dobrokhotov, editor-in-chief of The Insider, told Reuters the authorities had accused […]

September 30, 2021 By Krisztina Than and Gergely Szakacs BUDAPEST (Reuters) -Klara Dobrev, a 49-year-old lawyer, has emerged as the front-runner in a joint opposition bid to unseat Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban in 2022 elections, partial results of an opposition primary showed on Thursday. Dobrev, whose candidacy would raise the prospect of Hungary’s first […]

Facebook Messenger is releasing a bundle of products this morning — most notably, including cross-app group chats. Last year, the company introduced cross-app messaging between Messenger and Instagram, but now, users will be able to start group chats among Instagram and Messenger contacts. Other additions today include polls in Instagram DMs, building off of the […]

The larger a coding project gets, and the more people become involved, the harder it becomes to get a big picture view of how the entire project fits together, and this is especially true for distributed teams. Today, CodeSee, an early stage startup that wants to help development teams understand the entire code base, released […]

Alloy, which has built an identity operating system for banks and fintechs, announced Thursday that it has raised $100 million at a $1.35 billion valuation. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the Series C round, which comes just over one year after New York-based Alloy raised $40 million in a Series B financing. Existing backers Canapi Ventures, […]

Spotify earlier this year began beta testing new features to make podcasts more interactive through the use of listener polls and Q&As. Today, the company says these features will become publicly available to all creators through its podcast creation app, Anchor. To use the new options, creators who publish and distribute using Anchor will be […]

September 30, 2021 By Rohith Nair (Reuters) -A bout manipulation system existed in boxing at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Richard McLaren, the head of the independent investigation commissioned by the sport’s world governing AIBA, said in his report on Thursday. McLaren said the first stage of the investigation looked into the refereeing and judging at […]