News

September 23, 2021 PARIS (Reuters) -French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday it would take “time and actions” to restore confidence in ties after a crisis triggered by Australia’s cancellation of a submarine contract with Paris. France was incensed by Australia’s decision last week to opt instead […]

September 23, 2021 By Sangmi Cha SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s call to declare a formal end to the Korean War is premature as there is no guarantee it would lead to the withdrawal of the “U.S. hostile policy” toward Pyongyang, North Korea state media KCNA reported on Friday, citing Vice Foreign Minister Ri Thae […]

September 23, 2021 MADRID (Reuters) – The former Catalan government head Carles Puigdemont was detained on Thursday by Italian police in Sardinia, his office said in a statement. Spain has accused the Catalan separatist leader with sedition, claiming he helped organise a 2017 independence referendum deemed illegal by Spanish courts. In March, the European Parliament […]

September 23, 2021 By Steve Keating KOHLER, Wisconsin (Reuters) – When the Ryder Cup gets underway on Friday the United States team members will be playing for their country and the Europeans will be playing for respect. There may be different motivations but there is a singular goal, lifting the little gold trophy on Sunday […]

September 23, 2021 By Tom Polansek and Karl Plume CHICAGO (Reuters) – Minnesota agricultural firm Crystal Valley Cooperative said it had been targeted in a ransomware attack in recent days, making it the second Midwestern farm-services provider in a week to be forced to take systems offline due to cybersecurity incidents. Crystal Valley, which sells […]

September 23, 2021 By Ross Kerber (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc’s executives ranks remained largely white, although the share of non-white executives rose modestly, while minorities continued to account for most of its blue-collar workforce as the online retailer grew rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new company data. The disclosure made Amazon the largest […]

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. Hello and welcome to Daily Crunch for September 23, 2021. We just put the final bow on Disrupt, which went pretty damn well. Thanks to everyone who came out, and, of course, […]

The New York City Council passed bills today that will set minimum pay and improve working conditions for gig workers making deliveries for apps like Grubhub, DoorDash and Uber Eats. More specifically, the bills allow delivery workers to use restaurant bathrooms, limit how far they can be asked to deliver, set minimum payments per trip […]

We started this competition with 20 impressive startups. After three days of fierce pitching in the virtual yet incredibly competitive Startup Battlefield arena, we have a winner. The startups taking part in the Startup Battlefield have all been hand-picked to participate in our highly competitive startup competition. Like last year, we reproduced the nail-biting excitement […]

September 23, 2021 By Lewis Krauskopf and Marc Jones NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) – World stock markets rallied on Thursday and the U.S. dollar retreated from one-month highs as worries faded about contagion from China Evergrande and as investors digested the Federal Reserve’s plans for reining in U.S. stimulus. Wall Street’s main indexes all ended up […]

September 23, 2021 (Reuters) – Insurance company FWD Group Holdings Ltd, owned by Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li, made its filing for a stock market listing in the United States public on Thursday, revealing a jump in revenue last year. The insurer, which will list through an initial public offering, posted revenue of $9.49 billion […]

September 23, 2021 BERLIN (Reuters) – Candidates vying to succeed Angela Merkel as German chancellor clashed on Thursday on tax, debt and foreign policy in a final television debate as opinion polls showed the race tightening three days before a federal election. A FGW poll for ZDF Television showed support for the conservative CDU/CSU alliance, […]

In order to combat human trafficking effectively, those combating it must understand it — and these days, that means data. Unfortunately, for obvious reasons there is no convenient index of trafficking victims, though this confidential information is in some ways abundant. Microsoft and the International Organization for Migration may have found a way forward with […]

The company whose tech powered the sensational MyHeritage app that turned classic family photos into lifelike moving portraits is back with a new implementation of its technology: Transforming still photographs into ultra-realistic video, capable of saying whatever you want. D-ID’s Speaking Portraits may look like the notorious ‘deepfakes’ that have made headlines over the past […]

NTWRK, a video shopping app that has helped to popularize the idea of live-streamed commerce in the U.S., announced today it’s closed on $50 million in new funding led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management and global luxury group Kering, owners of luxury brands Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, and others. The company has been […]

Rivian, the electric vehicle startup that’s gearing up for an initial public offering, continues its trend of growing fast. The company will be opening a service support operations facility for vehicle owners in Plymouth, Michigan — and just in time, as deliveries of the launch edition of the R1T pickup are expected to commence late […]

Bay Area-based autonomous farming startup Iron Ox this week announced a $53 million round. The Series C, led by Breakthrough Energy Venture, brings the firm’s total funding up to $98 million. Iron Ox is one of a large number of companies looking to revolutionize farming for the 21st century, amid growing concerns over population growth, […]

September 23, 2021 By Joseph Menn SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – When a senior executive at virtual private network company ExpressVPN admitted to working on behalf of a foreign intelligence service to hack American machines last week, it stunned employees at his new company, according to interviews and electronic records. What ExpressVPN then said after the […]

September 23, 2021 By Tyler Clifford and Luc Cohen NEW YORK (Reuters) – R. Kelly’s accusers were motivated by money to lie about his alleged sexual abuses, a lawyer for the R&B superstar argued on Thursday in a final effort to persuade jurors not to convict Kelly of sex trafficking charges. In his closing argument […]

September 23, 2021 By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to give $1 billion to Israel for its Iron Dome missile-defense system, two days after objections from the most liberal Democrats forced leaders to remove it from a broader spending bill. The measure passed by 420 to 9 […]