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September 7, 2021 TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan could get up to 9 million doses of BioNTech SE’s COVID-19 vaccine this year, the founder of Taiwanese tech giant Foxconn said on Monday, laying out a delivery timetable for a vaccine order that became heavily politicised. Taiwan had blamed China, which claims the island as its own […]

Portcast founders Dr. Lingxiao Xia and Nidhi Gupta For many manufacturers and freight forwarders, managing logistics is still a very manual process: tracking shipments with a call or online lookup, and entering that data into an Excel spreadsheet. Portcast, which describes itself as a “next-generation logistics operating system,” makes the process more efficient by gathering […]

In the latest quasi-throwback toward ‘do not track‘, the UK’s data protection chief has come out in favor of a browser- and/or device-level setting to allow Internet users to set “lasting” cookie preferences — suggesting this as a fix for the barrage of consent pop-ups that continues to infest websites in the region. European web […]

September 7, 2021 By Kantaro Komiya and Daniel Leussink TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s household spending grew less than expected in July as a resurgence of COVID-19 cases hindered consumer activity, throwing broader economic recovery prospects into doubt. The world’s third-largest economy is struggling to shake off the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, which forced the […]

September 7, 2021 TOKYO (Reuters) – Fumio Kishida, a key contender to succeed Yoshihide Suga as Japan’s prime minister, called for compiling a stimulus package of over 30 trillion yen ($273 billion) to cushion the economic blow from the coronavirus pandemic, a magazine reported. Kishida also said that if he were to become prime minister, […]

ShopUp, a startup that is digitizing neighborhood stores in Bangladesh, has raised $75 million in a new financing round that is also the largest in the South Asian market. Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures led ShopUp’s $75 million Series B financing round. Prosus Ventures as well as existing investors Flourish Ventures, Sequoia Capital India, and VEON […]

September 7, 2021 By Amy Tennery NEW YORK (Reuters) – Her U.S. Open journey isn’t over but Emma Raducanu has already written herself into the history books, reaching her first Grand Slam quarter-final to take up the mantle of British tennis. With grand dame Virginia Wade looking on from the stands, the 18-year-old thrashed American […]

September 7, 2021 By Nick Carey MUNICH (Reuters) – As carmakers gathered in Munich on Monday to launch almost exclusively zero- or low-emission vehicles, an ongoing semiconductor shortage cast a long shadow over the first major car show since before the pandemic began. Forced to shut down plants last year, carmakers now face increasing competition […]

September 7, 2021 By Hideyuki Sano and Tom Westbrook TOKYO/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – While the race for ruling party leader remains wide open, the Japanese stock market has emerged as a clear winner of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s abrupt departure, with the broad Topix index soaring to 31-year highs. Suga said on Friday he would not […]

September 7, 2021 PARIS (Reuters) – Jean-Paul Belmondo, a star of France’s New Wave cinema after his breakthrough performance in Jean-Luc Godard’s “A bout de souffle” (“Breathless”) in 1959, has died. He was 88. The death of a leading figure in French cinema was felt across the country. President Emmanuel Macron tweeted that France had […]

September 7, 2021 CAIRO (Reuters) – Qatar’s ruling emir and the visiting U.S. secretaries of state and defense discussed developments in Afghanistan and efforts to enhance security there, the emir’s court said on Monday. The emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, received U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin after […]

September 7, 2021 SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea has elevated a general long seen as a rising star in the country’s powerful military and a major player in its missile programme to a position in the presidium of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) politburo, state media reported on Tuesday. Pak Jong Chon will […]

September 6, 2021 (Reuters) – An Australian court fined local units of Allianz SE for selling travel insurance to ineligible customers and not properly disclosing how it calculated premiums on Expedia websites, the country’s corporate watchdog said on Tuesday. Two units of German insurer Allianz were fined a total of A$1.5 million ($1.12 million) in […]

September 6, 2021 By Huw Jones LONDON (Reuters) – Britain needs to ease taxes on banks and make it easier to hire staff from abroad, its financial and professional services lobby said in a blueprint to help London unseat New York as the world’s top international financial centre within five years. The strategy paper on […]

September 6, 2021 LONDON (Reuters) – British consumer spending jumped last month thanks to a post-lockdown splurge on holidays at home and entertainment, payment card company Barclaycard said on Tuesday. Spending rose by 15.4% last month compared with its pre-pandemic level in August 2019, marked by higher spending across all categories apart from international travel, […]

September 6, 2021 SYDNEY (Reuters) – New Zealand is “very close” to procuring more coronavirus vaccines and a deal could be announced this week, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said on Tuesday, as the country looks to get on top of an outbreak of the Delta variant. The government is in talks with several countries, […]

September 6, 2021 By Angelo Amante ROME (Reuters) – The group of 20 rich countries said on Monday more efforts were needed to help poor countries vaccinate their populations against COVID-19, but steered clear of making new numerical or financial commitments. Italy, which holds the G20 presidency this year, said after the gathering that the […]

The pandemic has triggered more demand for contactless and staff-less operations in the hospitality sector, and now H2O Hospitality, the unmanned hotel management company, has closed a $30 million round on the back of that boost. The South Korea and Japan-based startup automates front and backend processes including accommodation reservation, room management and front desk […]

September 6, 2021 By Steve Keating NEW YORK (Reuters) – As if a fourth round 6-2 6-1 thrashing at the U.S. Open was not hard enough to deal with, American Shelby Rogers said that she would most likely have to contend with death threats on social media following Monday’s loss to Emma Raducanu. While death […]

September 6, 2021 By Eliana Raszewski BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – In downtown Buenos Aires, the scars of the pandemic are clear for all to see. In store windows, signs read “We’re leaving,” “Final settlement,” and “Closing down” – a reminder of the painful economic impact of COVID-19. As with city centers elsewhere, Argentina’s picturesque and […]