News

September 15, 2021 WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Staff of the Federal Trade Commission will present their findings on Wednesday on business deals that tech platforms like Facebook and Alphabet’s Google did that were sometimes too small to prompt antitrust review. The agency, which began holding open meetings after progressive Lina Khan became chair in June, will […]

September 15, 2021 (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to meet Wednesday with executives from companies including Walt Disney Co, Microsoft Corp and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc to advance his COVID-19 vaccination requirements for the private sector, the Wall Street Journal reported https://ift.tt/398VCcc. The Biden administration is advocating for state and local leaders […]

September 15, 2021 FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Commerzbank is planning to appoint Erste Group’s <ERST.VI> Thomas Schaufler and Roland Berger’s Joerg Oliveri del Castillo-Schulz to its management board, Handelsblatt reported on Wednesday. The German lender’s supervisory board is debating personnel issues at a meeting on Wednesday and is expected to make an announcement in the afternoon. […]

September 15, 2021 By Richard Lough PARIS (Reuters) – For Paris photographer Olivier Sanchez, there is only one story in town: the new life of Lionel Messi. Newspapers and magazines around the world harangue his Crystal Pictures agency for images of the Argentine footballer, his wife and children settling into the French capital a month […]

September 15, 2021 By Lisa Keddie LONDON (Reuters) – Singer Lola Lennox teamed up with her boyfriend, model and musician Braeden Wright as well as her famous mother, Eurythmics singer Annie Lennox, to work on her music during lockdown, producing six tracks for her upcoming debut EP. London-born Lennox, who lives in Los Angeles, has released […]

September 15, 2021 WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The top U.S. general secretly called his Chinese counterpart twice over concerns then-President Donald Trump could spark a war with China as his potential election loss loomed and in its aftermath, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday. U.S. General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called […]

September 15, 2021 By Jason Lange and Chris Kahn WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A one-year expansion of the U.S. child tax credit, a policy championed by President Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats over Republican opposition, has disproportionately benefited states that voted for former President Donald Trump in 2020, a Reuters review of Treasury Department data […]

September 15, 2021 WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden denied on Tuesday a media report that his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, last week turned down an offer from Biden for a face-to-face meeting. The Financial Times cited multiple people briefed on a 90-minute call between the two leaders last week as saying Xi did […]

September 15, 2021 By Sara Cheng HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong’s security chief called on Wednesday for the city’s main press association to disclose to the public who its members work for and how many of them are students, a day after he accused the group of infiltrating schools. The comments by Secretary for […]

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) has yet another ‘Big Tech’ GDPR probe to add to its pile: The regulator said yesterday it has opened two investigations into video sharing platform TikTok. The first covers how TikTok handles children’s data, and whether it complies with Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation. The DPC also said it will examine […]

September 15, 2021 By Tom Arnold LONDON (Reuters) – A unit in Afghanistan’s central bank leading a 15-year effort to counter illicit funding flows has halted operations, four staff members said, threatening to hasten the country’s slide out of the global financial system. Since 2006, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Center of Afghanistan (FinTRACA) […]

September 15, 2021 (Reuters) – Next year’s world cross country championships have been pushed back to 2023 due to COVID-19 travel restrictions in Australia, governing body World Athletics said on Wednesday. Australia has some of the tightest restrictions in the world aimed at preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus, including limiting the number of […]

September 15, 2021 BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Euro zone industrial production was stronger than expected in July, data showed on Wednesday, thanks to rising output of capital and non-durable consumer goods. The European Union’s statistics office Eurostat said industrial output in the 19 countries sharing the euro rose 1.5% month-on-month in July for a 7.7% year-on-year […]

September 15, 2021 TOKYO (Reuters) – Shigeru Ishiba, a heavyweight politician of Japan’s ruling party, formally announced on Wednesday that he would not run for the party’s leadership race, throwing his support instead behind Taro Kono, a top contender to become the next prime minister. There had been some speculation the former defence minister would […]

What would happened if your go-to calendar and messaging apps were in fact one and the same thing? That’s the thinking behind Onin — a UK startup that wants to simplify event planning by, well, making a more organized app for organizing stuff. If that sounds a little niche, it pays to remember that calendars […]

September 15, 2021 HONG KONG (Reuters) – The 2022 Gay Games due to be held in Hong Kong will be postponed for a year because of the coronavirus, a delay to Asia’s inaugural hosting of an event that could raise hope in a region where intolerance is common, organisers said on Wednesday. Hong Kong was […]

September 15, 2021 ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Afghanistan’s women’s soccer team has left for neighbouring Pakistan, the information minister in Islamabad said on Tuesday, as questions linger over the status of female athletes under Taliban rule. “We welcome Afghanistan women football team, they arrived at Torkham Border from Afghanistan,” said Fawad Chaudhry, Pakistan’s information minister, in […]

September 15, 2021 By Kate Abnett STRASBOURG (Reuters) – The European Union on Wednesday pledged to increase financial support to help poorer countries fight climate change and adapt to its impacts, and called on the United States also to step up. “We will now propose an additional 4 billion euros for climate finance until 2027,” […]

September 15, 2021 STRASBOURG (Reuters) – The European Union’s future hinges on its level of technological prowess, in particular access to chips crucial for everything from smartphones to electric scooters to factories, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. “Digital is the make-or-break issue,” von der Leyen said in a policy speech at European […]

September 15, 2021 By Fanny Potkin SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Norwegian telecom firm Telenor is selling its Myanmar operations to avoid European Union sanctions after “continued pressure” from Myanmar’s military junta to activate intercept surveillance technology, the company’s Asia head told Reuters. Telenor announced in July it would sell its Myanmar unit to Lebanese investment firm […]