News

September 15, 2021 BERLIN (Reuters) – Lufthansa is putting on more flights for business travellers in September and October, the chief executive of the German airline told Reuters on Wednesday. “We are now seeing very clearly that business travellers are coming back,” Carsten Spohr said, adding Lufthansa had increased capacity on domestic flights by 30% […]

September 15, 2021 (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp shares rose 1% in early trading on Wednesday after the company announced a $60 billion share repurchase plan, its biggest ever. The announcement comes just days after two U.S. Senate Democrats unveiled a proposal to tax corporate stock buybacks to help fund President Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion investment […]

September 15, 2021 By Alicia Powell NEW YORK (Reuters) -Broadway’s biggest musicals roared back to life on Tuesday, banishing the eerie silence of the last 18 months in New York’s pandemic-hit theater district with screams, tears and standing ovations. Emotions were giddy as the curtain rose again on top musicals “Hamilton,” “The Lion King” and […]

September 15, 2021 DETROIT (Reuters) – Chinese electric vehicle maker Xpeng Inc would consider acquiring less successful rivals to expand production capacity in the future, company President Brian Gu told reporters during a conference call. Xpeng is building two new factories in China. At the same time, the Chinese government is signaling it wants to […]

September 15, 2021 By Trevor Hunnicutt and Doina Chiacu WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden will meet on Wednesday with business leaders as he pushes companies to require workers to be vaccinated amid a surge in COVID-19 infections among those without a dose. Participants in the meeting include the chief executives of Walt Disney Co, […]

September 15, 2021 LONDON (Reuters) – British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has been appointed justice secretary in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s reshuffle and will also be deputy prime minister, Johnson’s office said on Wednesday. Johnson had faced calls to sack Raab after he went on holiday in Crete as the Taliban advanced on Kabul and […]

September 15, 2021 MILAN (Reuters) – Monte dei Paschi di Siena is moving to close 50 branches in line with commitments taken with European Union authorities under its restructuring plan through 2021, a copy of a letter the state-owned bank sent to unions showed on Wednesday. It was not immediately possible to reach Monte dei […]

September 15, 2021 SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazilian airline Gol announced an exclusive three-year codeshare agreement with American Airlines, sending shares higher on Wednesday. Gol said it will receive a $200 million equity investment as part of the agreement, according to a securities filing on Wednesday, making its preferred shares jump about 5% in early trading […]

September 15, 2021 By Jessica DiNapoli (Reuters) – More than half of 530 corporate executives have little or no confidence in the reliability and maturity of their environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) programs, according to a global survey from non-profit corporate governance advocacy non-profit OCEG. The global report paints a dim picture of the […]

September 15, 2021 BERLIN (Reuters) – Pope Francis has rejected the resignation of the Archbishop of Hamburg who had offered to step down after a report named him among several senior officials in Germany’s Catholic Church to have breached their duty in handling sexual abuse cases. In a statement, the Vatican said it had thoroughly […]

As Warby Parker, Freshworks, Amplitude and Toast look to list in the coming weeks, we shouldn’t forget the SPAC boom. This week, for example, Forge Global (Forge), a technology startup that operates a market for secondary transactions in private companies, announced that it would go public via a blank-check combination. And while we’re not unpacking every […]

September 15, 2021 LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) -Players from Afghanistan’s female youth soccer teams have arrived in Pakistan and will seek political asylum in third countries amid concern over the status of female athletes under the new Taliban government in Kabul. Some 81 people, including female players of several youth teams, their coaches and family members […]

September 15, 2021 LONDON (Reuters) – The Venturi Formula E team announced on Wednesday the arrival of Brazilian Lucas di Grassi, winner of the electric series’ first race and one of only two drivers to have competed in every season since the start in 2014, from departed Audi. The 2016-17 Formula E champion, a former […]

September 15, 2021 WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday plans to announce a plan to share advanced technologies in a working group with Britain and Australia, Politico reported, in a possible move to push back on China. Biden was due to give a 5 p.m. (2100 GMT) address on national security, but […]

September 15, 2021 (Reuters) – Retail investors’ appetite for U.S. stocks has fallen in the past week, data from Vanda Research showed on Wednesday, increasing the odds for a broader sell-off in the S&P 500 at a time when it is already about 2% off its record high. In the five days to Tuesday, retail […]

September 15, 2021 LONDON (Reuters) – Small companies in Britain, which demanded that their insurers cover claims for losses accrued during the COVID-19 pandemic, have received more than one billion pounds ($1.4 billion) in full and interim business interruption payouts to date. Businesses ranging from restaurants to nightclubs and wedding planners to beauty parlours in […]

Relyance AI, an early stage startup that is helping companies stay in compliance with privacy laws at the code level, announced a $25 million Series A today. At the same time, they revealed a previously unannounced $5 million seed round. Menlo Ventures and Unusual Ventures led the A round, while Unusual was sole lead on […]

September 15, 2021 By Sara Cheng HONG KONG (Reuters) – Nine Hong Kong pro-democracy activists were sentenced to between six and 10 months in prison on Wednesday for taking part in an unauthorised assembly at last year’s vigil for the victims of China’s 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on protesters. The former British colony, which returned […]

September 15, 2021 TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwanese fighter jets landed on a makeshift runway on a highway strip on Wednesday overseen by President Tsai Ing-wen as annual drills reached their peak, skills that would be needed in the event China attacks and targets Taiwan’s vulnerable air bases. China has been ramping up its military pressure against […]

September 15, 2021 TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan is a “sea fortress” blocking China’s expansion into the Pacific and is willing to share with other democracies its knowledge of countering Beijing’s efforts to undermine it, Foreign Minister Joseph Wu told a U.S. audience on Wednesday. The United States, like most countries, does not have formal diplomatic […]