Shamayita Acharya

By Sheila Dang and Paresh Dave (Reuters) - U.S. senators on Thursday grilled Facebook Inc on its plans to better protect young users on its apps, drawing on leaked internal research that showed the social media giant was aware of how its Instagram app harmed the mental health of teens. The hearing in front of the Senate consumer protection subcommittee was called after the Wall Street Journal published several stories earlier this month about how Facebook knew Instagram caused some teen girls in particular to feel badly about their self-image. After growing opposition to the project, Facebook put plans for Instagram Kids, aimed at pre-teens, on hold this week. Antigone Davis, Facebook's global head of safety, disputed the committee and WSJ's conclusions of the research documents throughout the hearing, and said the company was working to release additional internal studies in an effort ... Read More on Datafloq

(Reuters) - Bitcoin was up 5.23% at $43,716.97 as of 22:08 GMT on Thursday, adding $2,174.07 to its previous close. The world's biggest and best-known cryptocurrency has gained 57.6% from the year's low of $27,734 on Jan. 4. Ether, the coin linked to the ethereum blockchain network, rose 5.26% to $3,001.48, adding $150.08 to its previous close. (Reporting by Nishit Jogi in Bengaluru; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi) ... Read More on Datafloq

(Reuters) -Retailer Neiman Marcus Group said on Thursday it had notified about 4.6 million online customers that their personal information including names, contact information and credit card numbers may have been accessed in a data hack. The high-end department store chain said it had notified law enforcement authorities about the breach, which it said happened in May 2020. About 3.1 million payment and virtual gift cards were affected, more than 85% of which were expired or invalid, Neiman Marcus said. The company, which emerged from bankruptcy in September last year, also said it had no evidence that online customer accounts for its Bergdorf Goodman and Horchow units had been affected. (Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli) ... Read More on Datafloq

By Hyunjoo Jin, Jane Lanhee Lee and Paresh Dave SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - General Motors Co's Cruise and Alphabet Inc's Waymo self-driving car subsidiaries on Thursday became the first companies to receive autonomous vehicle permits to offer rides to passengers in California. Cruise has obtained a permit from the California Department of Motor Vehicles to offer driverless rides to passengers at night in some parts of San Francisco, and Waymo has won a permit from the regulator to deploy autonomous vehicles with safety drivers behind the wheel. The DMV said it would allow commercial service for the companies, but said they would need to obtain another permit from the California Public Utilities Commission to start charging passengers for rides. Another company, Nuro, last year received a California ... Read More on Datafloq

By Sheila Dang (Reuters) - Social audio chat app Clubhouse is launching the ability to record and replay conversations and also download 30-second clips to share on social media or other sites, it said on Thursday. The app will also roll out an improved search function to help people find live and scheduled audio rooms, users and clubs oriented around certain interests, the company said. The new features will aim to help content creators on Clubhouse expand their audience at a time when larger tech rivals like Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc have also introduced competing "social audio" features. "Right now it's too hard for (creators) to grow," Paul Davison, Clubhouse's co-creator and chief executive, said in an interview. "Anytime you help create a great moment or there's a ... Read More on Datafloq

By Marc Jones and Tom Wilson LONDON (Reuters) - A group of central banks sketched out a potential operating manual for digital cash on Thursday as they aim to strike a balance between keeping up with cryptocurrencies and concerns that the new technology could upend commercial lenders. Worried that the explosion of bitcoin and its ilk could weaken their control of money, policymakers from Beijing to Washington are exploring central bank digital currencies, known as CBDCs. And while a widely-used digital dollar or euro may still be years away, work by central banks is gathering pace as consumers increasingly ditch coins and notes in favour of digital payments on debit or credit cards and mobile phones. The seven central banks - including those in the United ... Read More on Datafloq

PARIS (Reuters) - French TV group M6 has set up a partnership with Snap Inc's messaging app Snapchat to make extracts of its programmes available on the social media group's platform, it said on Thursday. The broadcaster's content will be available via the Discover tab of the app, becoming the first French TV group to link up with Snapchat, M6 said. The company said it will publish extracts of some of its top shows, such as food programmes "Top chef" and "Meilleur pâtissier" as well as real estate programme "Recherche Appartement ou Maison". Number two French broadcaster M6 and market leader TF1 said in May that they would link up in a bid to create a national champion that can take on global video-on-demand giants. ... Read More on Datafloq

By Foo Yun Chee LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - A 4.34 billion euro ($5 billion) European Union antitrust fine was based on flawed calculations, Alphabet's Google said on Thursday, urging Europe's second-highest court to scrap or reduce what it said was not an appropriate penalty. Google was fined for using its Android mobile operating system to thwart rivals and cement its dominance in general internet search from 2011, in the largest penalty meted out to any company found guilty of breaching EU antitrust rules. "The fine that was imposed, a staggering 4.34 billion euros, was not appropriate," Google's lawyer Genevra Forwood told the five-judge panel of the General Court on the fourth day of a week-long hearing, which is taking place three years after the European Commission sanctioned the company. "The problem ... Read More on Datafloq

By Marine Strauss BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Uber Technologies Inc. joined a protest of its drivers in Brussels on Thursday with an unprecedented suspension of its service in the Belgian capital. Rules dating back to 1995 prohibit drivers from using smartphones, meaning those that use the Uber app to pick up customers and to drive them to their destination risk losing their vehicles, Uber said in a blog. "This is not acceptable in 2021," Uber said, adding the sector had been waiting seven years for reforms. In an email to clients, the hail-riding company said its services would be unavailable for three hours in the morning because the Brussels government had failed to present a reform plan before the summer, contrary to its pledge to do so. ... Read More on Datafloq

By Tina Bellon PALMER, Texas (Reuters) - Self-driving startup Aurora says it has discovered a path to turn costly self-driving vehicles into a profitable business, showcasing its technology to investors this week ahead of a public listing it hopes will provide some $2 billion in additional funding. The move comes as several autonomous trucking companies prepare to launch driverless routes in the coming years and begin signing up industry partners and customers in an effort to turn long-elusive self-driving into a profitable reality. Unlike some of its competitors, Aurora wants to provide both autonomous freight trucking and robotaxi services, saying the combination will lower costs, provide greater revenue streams and allow technology transfer. "Trucking allows us to build a profitable, scalable business that funds the further development of ride-hailing and ... Read More on Datafloq

Making mistakes has become somewhat synonymous with failure and that it is wrong for mistakes to have been committed, but from making mistakes you can accelerate your learning and resilience as a business owner and entrepreneur and even thrive from there on because of them. The pandemic has been the catalyst for so many businesses to face a different set of problems and provide solutions in a way they may have never had to do before. (Graph showing GDP loss due to pandemic. Image: Statista)You’ve got to be in it to win itWhen it comes to being a successful business owner, shying away from ideas you want to pursue is not always in your best interest. Being a positive thinker and not being fearful of making mistakes and potential failure when trying something new is key to progress. As you execute more of the ideas you want to and action them rather than keeping them as only ideas, you will create a larger scope of scenarios for yourself and in turn the range of solutions you have to

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 again in 2022, although an Opel spokesperson could not specify a date. Some 1,300 workers employed at the plant will be temporarily laid off, Opel said, with a separate plant in France picking up some of the production. Stellantis has halted production at other plants, including in Europe and Canada, forecasting that it would make 1.4 million fewer vehicles this year due to the chip shortage. ... Read More on Datafloq

By John Revill ZURICH (Reuters) -ABB has launched the world's fastest electric car charger, the Swiss engineering company said on Thursday, to plug into the booming demand for electric cars made by Tesla, Hyundai and other automakers. The company is launching the new Terra 360 modular charger as it presses ahead with plans to float its electric vehicle (EV) charging business, which could be valued around $3 billion. The device can charge up to four vehicles at once, and can fully charge any electric car within 15 minutes, ABB said, making it attractive to customers worried about charging times which can run to several hours. "With governments around the world writing public policy that favours electric vehicles and charging networks to combat climate change, the demand for EV charging infrastructure, especially charging stations that ... Read More on Datafloq

By Yadarisa Shabong (Reuters) -Oxford Nanopore Technologies soared 45% in its market debut on Thursday, marking London's biggest biotech listing in recent years and valuing the firm at almost 5 billion pounds ($6.84 billion). The company specialises in DNA sequencing and provides rapid COVID-19 tests. The London Stock Exchange (LSE) has enjoyed a strong run of IPOs this year yet biotech firms have traditionally opted to list in New York over London, or have listed on the LSE's junior AIM bourse rather than the main market. "We went through a thorough and rigorous process and went for London," CEO Gordon Sanghera told journalists this month. "For many, many reasons is the right place to float, and some of the government moves are encouraging." ... Read More on Datafloq

FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Virgin Money UK will close almost one in five branches in the coming months as more customers shift to online banking, the British bank said on Thursday, the latest lender to cut back its high-street presence after the pandemic. The bank, which had promoted its branches as "community-focussed spaces" to "brighten ... lives", said customer's willingness to bank online or using their mobile phones had prompted it to scale back. Announcing the cuts, it said there was an ever greater willingness to use "digital self-service". It will close 31 of its 162 branches in the coming months. It will also cut its office space, a move the bank said would give staff greater flexibility around their working location. Several banks paused branch closures in the early months of the pandemic but ... Read More on Datafloq

By Josh Horwitz BEIJING (Reuters) -China published new draft measures on Thursday aimed at bolstering its new data security law, including definitions of what it considered "core" and "important" data. China implemented the Data Security Law on Sept. 1. which requires all companies in China to classify the data they handle into several categories and governs how such data is stored and transferred to other parties. But lawyers have criticised its ambiguities https://ift.tt/2UPgpOa including its lack of definitions for data. Thursday's draft measures describe in detail three categories of data - ordinary data, important data, and core data. The authorities describe ordinary data as data with a minimal ability to impact society at large, or that will affect ... Read More on Datafloq

(Reuters) -Amazon.com Inc and the U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) said on Wednesday the company had reached a settlement with two former employees who alleged they were fired last year for criticizing the working conditions at the e-commerce giant's warehouses. Amazon had terminated the employment of Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa, who had accused the company of enforcing policies in a discriminatory fashion and instituting rules that "chill and restrain" the staff from exercising rights, according to their charge filed in October. The NLRB found in April that Amazon illegally fired them after they advocated for better working conditions during the pandemic. "Amazon will be required to pay us our lost wages and post a notice to all of its tech and warehouse workers nationwide that Amazon can't fire workers for organizing and exercising their rights," Cunningham and Costa said in a joint statement on Wednesday. ... Read More on Datafloq

By Nick Carey and Yilei Sun MUNICH/BEIJING (Reuters) - China's electric carmakers are darting into Europe, hoping to catch traditional auto giants cold and seize a slice of a market supercharged by the continent's drive towards zero emissions. Nio Inc, among a small group of challengers, launches its ES8 electric SUV in Oslo on Thursday - the first foray outside China for a company that is virtually unheard of in Europe even though it's valued at about $57 billion. Other brands unfamiliar to many Europeans that have started selling or plan to sell cars on the continent include Aiways, BYD's Tang, SAIC's MG, Dongfeng's VOYAH, and Great Wall's ORA. Yet Europe, a crowded, competitive car market dominated by famous brands, has proved elusive for ... Read More on Datafloq

By David Shepardson (Reuters) -Facebook Inc, under criticism over internal data showing its Instagram app damaged the mental health of teenagers, plans to highlight during a U.S. Senate hearing on Thursday what it argues were more positive impacts, according to the company's prepared testimony seen by Reuters. Antigone Davis, global head of safety at Facebook, will detail the company's previously announced efforts to better protect children and teens online, including defaulting users under the age of 16 to private accounts when they join Instagram, according to the testimony. "Our research showed that many teens who are struggling say that Instagram helps them deal with many of the hard issues that are so common to being a teen," Davis's written testimony says. Facebook has been under fire for the past week after the Wall ... Read More on Datafloq

BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany's federal cybersecurity watchdog, the BSI, is conducting a technical examination of a mobile phone manufactured by China's Xiaomi Corp, a spokesperson for the interior ministry told Reuters on Wednesday. The spokesperson did not provide further details on what kind of examination the agency was carrying out. Lithanua's state cybersecurity body said last week that Xiaomi phones had a built-in ability to detect and censor terms such as "Free Tibet", "Long live Taiwan independence" or "democracy movement". Xiaomi said on Monday it was engaging a third-party expert to assess the allegations by Lithuania that its smartphones carry built-in censorship capabilities. The company was not immediately available for comment on the German probe. Xiaomi emerged as the top ... Read More on Datafloq

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Moscow court on Wednesday fined Alphabet Inc.'s Google 6.5 million roubles ($89,535) for not deleting content that Russia deems illegal, part of a wider dispute between Moscow and the U.S. tech giant. Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Russia threatened to block YouTube earlier on Wednesday after Russian state-backed broadcaster RT's German-language channels were deleted. ($1 = 72.5975 roubles) (Reporting by Alexander Marrow and Maria Vasilyeva; editing by Tom Balmforth) ... Read More on Datafloq

By Gwénaëlle Barzic and Pamela Barbaglia PARIS (Reuters) -Telecoms tycoon Patrick Drahi is in talks to buy French firm Eutelsat in a deal that would see one of his investment vehicles take direct control of the Paris-listed satellite operator, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Drahi is working with banks on the project and recently made a bid approach for Eutelsat which has a market value of 2.3 billion euros ($1.96 billion) and is backed by state investor Bpifrance with a 20% stake, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Eutelsat, one of the world's leading commercial satellite operators, has turned down Drahi's initial proposal, one of the sources said, adding the price was deemed too low but talks remained active. Drahi and Eutelsat were not immediately available for comment. Bpifrance ... Read More on Datafloq

(Reuters) - AT&T Inc said on Wednesday it would require its union-represented employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 before entering their work location, following a similar mandate for its management employees last month. The U.S wireless carrier, one the largest employers of union-represented workers, said the Communications Workers of America (CWA)-linked employees must be fully vaccinated by Feb. 1, 2022. CWA represents more than 150,000 employees at AT&T. Other major companies including Facebook Inc, Google and Microsoft Corp have also mandated vaccinations for employees as the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus drives up infections in the United States. Some companies have also been working to incentivize employees to get vaccinated through bonuses and other benefits. Earlier this month, Tyson Foods Inc, the biggest U.S. meat company ... Read More on Datafloq

BERLIN (Reuters) - Rolls-Royce will produce only electric cars by 2030, the luxury carmaker said on Wednesday, joining other premium brands making the switch such as Volkswagen's Bentley and Jaguar's Land Rover. The BMW-owned brand said in a statement that its first fully electric powered car, named 'Spectre', will be on the market in the fourth quarter of 2023, with testing to begin soon. "With this new product we set out our credentials for the full electrification of our entire product portfolio by 2030, said Torsten Muller-Otvos, CEO of Rolls-Royce, which is based in the south of England. "By then, Rolls-Royce will no longer be in the business of producing or selling any internal combustion engine products," Muller-Otvos added. BMW has not set an end date for producing fossil fuel ... Read More on Datafloq

By Nathan Frandino GUALALA, Calif. (Reuters) - Tranquil images of the Pacific Ocean taken by a drone show that California's kelp forests may be making a comeback after years of depletion, bringing good news in the fight against climate change.     Kelp, which reduces global warming by soaking up carbon dioxide from the air via photosynthesis, has died off dramatically along Northern California's coast, with one study calculating a loss of more than 95% since 2013 due to rising sea temperatures and disease.     But a team from environmental group Nature Conservancy has spotted signs of a partial recovery of kelp forests during surveys off the coast of Mendocino and Sonoma counties by drone.     The group first started trying to survey kelp forest from the sky in 2019 but ... Read More on Datafloq

By David Kirton ZHUHAI, China (Reuters) - China on Wednesday revealed a drone concept similar in mission - and appearance - to the U.S.-made Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie as countries race to invest in "loyal wingman" drones to help protect pricier crewed fighter jets. The long-range FH-97 drone concept unveiled on Wednesday can carry different types of weapons, and has swarm and electronic warfare capabilities, said Wu Wei, a representative of China Aerospace Science Technology Corp's (CASTC) Feihong product line. He did not provide specifics in his presentation at Airshow China in Zhuhai. The United States, Britain, Australia, India and Russia are among the countries developing "loyal wingman" drones, which are cheaper and more expendable than crewed fighters. ... Read More on Datafloq

CASA GRANDE, Ariz. (Reuters) - Luxury electric car maker Lucid Group is on track to meet its production targets for 2022 and 2023 and is pushing to achieve this year's goal of 577 vehicles, its chief executive said. The California-based startup, which went public via a shell company this year, has secured $4.4 billion it needed until the end of next year but would not wait until then to raise more cash, Peter Rawlinson told Reuters. "This is a capital intensive business," he said, adding that the company was on track to achieve its production target of 20,000 vehicles in 2022 and 50,000 in 2023. He said the latest funding "sees us through to the end of 2022. So it doesn't see us right through to project Gravity," a reference to the firm's electric sport utility vehicle planned for release in late 2023. ... Read More on Datafloq

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union governments committed to a joint EU-U.S. declaration on technology cooperation on Wednesday, just in time for a key transatlantic meeting, after France threatened to block it unless it was watered down, EU diplomats said. Senior U.S. and European Union officials aim to discuss semiconductor shortages, artificial intelligence and tech competition issues at the inaugural meeting of the Trade and Technology Council (TTC) on Wednesday. The TTC meeting had been in doubt last week because of French anger over Australia's scrapping of a $40 billion submarine contract and decision to opt instead for a deal with the United States and Britain to buy nuclear-powered vessels. EU diplomats said France wanted to strike out a reference to a second meeting in spring 2022, when the French presidential election will take place. ... Read More on Datafloq

By David Kirton ZHUHAI, China (Reuters) - Some instant messaging groups used by people owed money by property giant China Evergrande Group to organize protests and discuss claims have been blocked on Tencent Holdings’ WeChat platform, group members said on Wednesday. Eight users across at least eight different groups, each numbering around 200 to 500 people, said they were prevented from sending new messages to the groups starting from Tuesday morning. Tencent declined to comment and the Cyberspace Administration of China did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The crisis at Evergrande, weighed down under $305 billion in debt and in the midst of a cash crunch, poses a challenge for the government. It wants to impose financial discipline but analysts say it is wary of a messy collapse that could fuel unrest by local investors, suppliers and homebuyers. ... Read More on Datafloq

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two U.S. senators said on Tuesday a Facebook Inc whistleblower will testify at a Senate hearing next week about what one of them called the social media company's "toxic effects" on young users. "This whistleblower’s testimony will be critical to understanding what Facebook knew about its platforms' toxic effects on young users, when they knew it, and what they did about it," Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, head of a subcommittee of the Senate commerce panel, said in a statement announcing the Oct. 5 hearing. Senator Marsha Blackburn, the subcommittee's top Republican, said: "From turning a blind eye to the negative impacts of its platforms on teens’ mental health to its inability to police for trafficking, domestic servitude, and other harmful content, Facebook has a lot to account for." Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ... Read More on Datafloq

SEOUL (Reuters) - Apple and Alphabet's Google have been asked to turn in by mid-October compliance plans for a new South Korean law that bans major app store operators from forcing software developers to use their payment systems, a regulatory official said on Wednesday. Apple and Google did not have immediate comment. The Korea Communications Commission will soon be drawing up an enforcement ordinance that will accompany the amendment of the country's Telecommunications Business Act. Most of the new law went into effect in mid-September. The enforcement ordinance is expected to be drafted within six months or possibly earlier, the official said. (Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Edwina Gibbs) ... Read More on Datafloq

By Joyce Lee and Hyunjoo Jin SEOUL/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -Samsung Electronics Co Ltd is close to finalising the construction of a $17 billion semiconductor factory in Williamson County in the U.S. state of Texas, three people with knowledge of the matter said. Samsung told Reuters that it is continuing due diligence in multiple locations, and that it has yet to make a decision. The factory will make advanced logic semiconductor chips and is likely to create about 1,800 jobs, Samsung previously said in filings to state officials. One of the people said though no decision has been made, the Austin suburb of Williamson County is the frontrunner due to the subsidies on offer as well as the likelihood of stable sources of electricity and water. ... Read More on Datafloq

By Byron Kaye SYDNEY (Reuters) - CNN said it has stopped posting articles on Australian Facebook Inc pages, citing a court ruling that publishers are liable for defamation in public comments and the social media firm's refusal to help it disable comments in the country. The move makes CNN, which is owned by AT&T Inc, the first major news organisation to pull its Australian Facebook presence since the country's high court ruled this month that publishers were legally responsible for comments posted below stories - even if the stories themselves were not defamatory. CNN does not feature prominently in Australian media consumption, but the decision could have reverberations across the industry if other outlets followed suit. Facebook declined a request to help CNN and other publishers disable public comments ... Read More on Datafloq

MILAN (Reuters) - A group led by Italian phone group Telecom Italia (TIM) has presented a plan to the government's innovation ministry to create a cloud-based infrastructure for the country's public administration data. The infrastructure, called National Strategic Hub (NSH), is part of the Italian government's strategy to accelerate digital transformation and guarantee national data security and control. Partnering with TIM are state lender CDP, cybersecurity group Leonardo and state-owned IT company Sogei. The cloud hub, one of the projects funded by the European Union to help Italy's economy recover from the pandemic, reflects European efforts to make the 27-member bloc less dependent on large overseas tech companies for cloud services. "The aim is to provide innovative services to citizens and businesses, in line with the provisions of the Italian ... Read More on Datafloq

(Reuters) - A Canadian regulator on Tuesday asked for information from the public on telecom company Rogers Communications Inc's planned C$20 billion ($16 billion) purchase of Shaw Communications Inc to check for competition concerns. The deal announced in March to create Canada's second-largest cellular and cable operator has attracted regulatory scrutiny. The Competition Bureau said in August it obtained court orders to advance its review. The regulator on Tuesday asked market participants and Canadians to come forth with information that could assist the regulator's probe on whether the deal will reduce or prevent competition. The Competition Bureau said its review was ongoing and no conclusions have been made. ... Read More on Datafloq

BERLIN (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's YouTube deleted Russian state-backed broadcaster RT's German-language channels on Tuesday, saying it had breached its COVID misinformation policy. "YouTube has always had clear community guidelines that outline what is allowed on the platform," said a spokesperson. Initially RT's German channel was issued a strike for uploading content that violated YouTube's COVID misinformation policy, resulting in a suspension of posting rights on the platform for a week.  During that suspension, the Russian broadcaster tried to use another channel to circumvent the ban on uploading. "As a result both channels were terminated for breaking YouTube Terms of Service," said the spokesperson. All videos uploaded to YouTube must comply with its guidelines which sets up ... Read More on Datafloq

By Hyunjoo Jin CASA GRANDE, Ariz. (Reuters) - Lucid Group Inc said on Tuesday it will start delivering its luxury electric sedans with a Tesla-beating driving range in late October, in a major challenge to the market leader whose sales of premium models have stagnated. The California-based startup began production of its long-delayed Lucid Air cars at its Arizona factory on Tuesday. The company, founded in 2007, received funding from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund in 2018 before going public via a shell company in July. Lucid Group's CEO, Peter Rawlinson, who had overseen Tesla's Model S development before he left the company in 2012, faces tasks similar to those of Tesla in its early days, including how to address manufacturing challenges and scale up production. ... Read More on Datafloq

By Manas Mishra (Reuters) - Micron Technology Inc forecast current-quarter revenue below analysts' expectations and warned that shipments for its memory chips were set to dip in the near term as its customers making personal computers face shortages of other parts. Shares of the Apple Inc-supplier, which also said it was experiencing shortages within its own supply chain for some components, fell nearly 4% in extended trading on Tuesday. The company makes both NAND memory chips that serve the data storage market and DRAM memory chips that are widely used in data centers, personal computers and other devices. Micron, one of the world's biggest memory chip suppliers, said it expects shipments of both chips to sequentially decline in the near term. ... Read More on Datafloq

MADRID (Reuters) - British mobile and broadband operator Vodafone will shut all 34 of its proprietary stores in Spain by March 2022, a labour union source said on Tuesday, as part of a wider plan to lay off over 500 workers in a hyper-competitive telecommunications sector. Arguing that customers have become more digital and want less personalised attention, Vodafone will seek to close every store it operates in Spain in the next six months, leaving only the brand's franchises behind, the source from leading union Comisiones Obreras said. The telecom had earlier this month announced it would negotiate the layoff of around 515 employees, some 12% of its Spanish workforce, citing "challenging conditions on the competitive Spanish market". That number has already been trimmed to 509, according to a separate source from the UGT union, which represents about half of syndicated workers. Nearly ... Read More on Datafloq

(Reuters) - Shares of Amplitude Inc opened nearly 43% above their reference price in Nasdaq debut on Tuesday, notching up a valuation of about $5 billion for the Benchmark Capital-backed analytics company. San Francisco-based Amplitude, which confidentially filed for a direct listing in July, was valued at $4 billion after a funding round in June. Stock of the company, which is also backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd, Sequoia Capital and Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC, opened at $50 per share, up from the reference price of $35 per share. Amplitude is a mobile analytics company that enables customers to optimize their products. Its customers include Comcast-owned media company NBCUniversal, payments processor PayPal Holdings Ltd, fitness products maker Peloton Interactive Inc and grocery delivery firm Instacart. In ... Read More on Datafloq

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said Tuesday it plans to deploy a new software capability to reduce taxi times and ramp congestion for flights at 27 airports. The FAA and NASA said the new software was tested for four years that calculates gate pushbacks at busy hub airports "so that each plane can roll directly to the runway and to take off." When deployed, the FAA said it anticipates annually saving more than 7 million gallons of fuel and eliminating more than 75,000 tons of CO2 emissions. (Reporting by David Shepardson, Editing by Franklin Paul) ... Read More on Datafloq

(Reuters) - Citadel Securities did not ask Robinhood or any other firm to restrict or limit trading on GameStop and other so-called "meme stocks" at the height of the retail-driven trading frenzy in January, the market-maker said on Tuesday. Robinhood and several other brokers restricted trading in GameStop's shares on Jan. 28 following a stunning two-week rally driven by retail traders that sparked a "short squeeze", leading to billions of dollars in losses for Wall Street hedge funds. "Citadel Securities never requested, intimated, agreed or otherwise sought to limit or to restrict the trading of such securities," Citadel Securities said in a statement to Reuters on Tuesday. The trading halt frustrated retail investors, capped the losses for hedge funds and drew the scrutiny of lawmakers and regulators. At a U.S. congressional hearing in February, Citadel LLC CEO Ken Griffin, who also founded Citadel ... Read More on Datafloq

(Reuters) - Netflix on Tuesday rolled out five mobile gaming titles to its subscribers in select European markets, as part of its efforts to diversify revenue sources amid intensifying competition in the booming video-streaming space. The company has introduced "Stranger Things: 1984", "Stranger Things 3: The Game", "Card Blast", "Teeter Up" and "Shooting Hoops" titles on Android to Netflix members in Spain and Italy. Poland, where the "Stranger Things" titles are already available, will get the other three titles. "We're still in the very early days, but we're excited to bring these exclusive games as part of the Netflix membership - with no ads and no in-app purchases," a company spokesperson told Reuters. Netflix had mentioned its plans to enter gaming during its last quarterly earnings, as ... Read More on Datafloq

When managing or leading a team, the mental wellbeing of the team ought to be a forefronted priority in order to encourage productivity. Most employees spend the majority of their day actioning tasks to do with their career so making their space as psychologically safe as possible is your responsibility as a leader. The pandemic has been a catalyst for a different style of working and may have been the source of much anxiety as people are mainly working from home. The uncertainty of the current situation or potentially another transitional period for your business means that the mental wellbeing of your staff is more important than ever. What is psychological safety?Psychological safety is the notion that new ideas and concerns expressed in the workplace will be met with humiliation and punishment, which in turn will lead to the downfall of wellbeing for an employee. Creating a space that is safe to make mistakes and upskill in a healthy manner, will not only result in a better perform

By Muvija M (Reuters) - British transport software firm Microlise saw annual core earnings jump by more than a third as a shortage of truck drivers and cost pressures forced the industry to try to become more efficient. Britain's departure from the European Union, the COVID-19 pandemic and a shortage of drivers has strained supply chains across the country, making the efficient management of fleets increasingly important, especially when driver wages are rising. Microlise Chief Executive Nadeem Raza told Reuters that customers were under pressure to deliver more orders without increasing costs. "They are going to look at other ways of saving money within their operations as they don't want to pass on those costs to their customers," he said. ... Read More on Datafloq

By Karen Freifeld (Reuters) - The admission by Huawei's chief financial officer that she misled a bank about the company's business dealings in Iran likely won't help the United States as it continues to prosecute Huawei for the same charges. While Meng Wanzhou's admissions last week https://ift.tt/2W88hJg go to the heart of the financial fraud charges, legal experts say it will be difficult and perhaps impossible for prosecutors to use them against Huawei Technologies Co Ltd at trial. And if the government were to try to use her admissions as leverage in any negotiations aimed at avoiding a trial, experts said, Huawei would likely say what she admitted was the result of extortion, or even a fabrication. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Brooklyn declined to comment, as ... Read More on Datafloq

By Josh Horwitz and Brenda Goh SHANGHAI (Reuters) - A new venture from the founder of Chinese automaker Zhejiang Geely Holding will aim to release its first smartphone by 2023 and sell 3 million units in its first year, according to a memo seen by Reuters. Geely, which owns Volvo, announced on Tuesday that chairman Eric Li, also known as Li Shufu, will launch a new company that will make premium smartphones, taking it into a competitive sector dominated by a handful of giants. Although Li has made futuristic bets on ventures such as flying cars and helicopter taxis, a foray into phones puts Geely into a highly competitive sector that is no longer growing in China and is dominated by a handful of players including Apple, China's Xiaomi Corp and others. ... Read More on Datafloq

By Philip Blenkinsop and Sabine Siebold BRUSSELS (Reuters) -France is seeking to water down a planned joint EU-U.S. declaration on technology cooperation, against the wishes of other EU countries, EU diplomats said on Tuesday. Senior U.S. and European Union officials aim to discuss semiconductor shortages, artificial intelligence and tech competition issues at the inaugural meeting of the Trade and Technology Council (TTC) on Wednesday. However, EU diplomats said France wanted to strike out a reference to a second meeting in spring 2022, when the French presidential election will take place. It also sought to remove language on a proposed semiconductor supply chain partnership that said the EU and the United States were mutually dependent, diplomats said. "There is a consensus minus ... Read More on Datafloq

By Foo Yun Chee LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - Alphabet unit Google on Tuesday said deals with Android phone makers that landed it a record 4.3-billion-euro ($5 billion) antitrust fine boosted competition and rejected EU charges they were a carrot-and-stick tactic that stifled rivals. Google was addressing the second day of a week-long hearing as it tries to get Europe's second-highest court to annul the fine and a European Commission order to make it loosen its search engine grip on Android devices. Lawyers for Google and the EU competition executive clashed over the company's Mobile Application Distribution Agreements (MADAs) that require phone makers (OEMs) to pre-install the Google Search app and Chrome browser app in return for licensing Google Play for free. "This licensing model is what attracted OEMs to the Android ... Read More on Datafloq

Few technological innovations have delivered as many welcomed improvements to the marketplace as artificial intelligence has. AI is now a well-recognized facet of countless marketing operations, and it’s also being put to use in countless other industries in order to streamline the industrial process or make sense of huge sums of data. Marketing gurus may nevertheless feel somewhat overwhelmed by the topic of AI, largely because they may lack the technical expertise needed to understand exactly how it works. Nevertheless, intelligent marketers can learn how to leverage AI without becoming dedicated IT specialists.Here’s a review of how intelligent marketers are already using AI to bolster their performances, and how you can go about joining them. AI produces more effective marketingThere’s no denying that artificial intelligence produces more effective marketing than ever before, yet many brands have hesitated to embrace this innovation because they fear that it will be too costly to i

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has begun offering payment services from Tencent Holdings Ltd's WeChat on a number of its apps, after the government ordered major tech firms to stop blocking each other's services and links. Local tech blog 36Kr reported on Tuesday that users of Alibaba's food delivery app Ele.me, luxury goods app Kaola and e-book app Shuqi can now purchase goods via WeChat Pay, one of China's most popular online payment options. Alibaba's used-goods marketplace app Xianyu and supermarket app Freshippo have also applied for WeChat Pay integration, the tech blog said. Alibaba confirmed the contents of the report to Reuters. Previously, the main way users could make payments on those apps was via Alipay, from Alibaba's financial affiliate Ant Group. Earlier this month, the ... Read More on Datafloq

By Byron Kaye SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia's antitrust watchdog called for powers to curb Google's use of internet data to sell targeted ads, joining other regulators in saying the firm dominates the market to the point of hurting publishers, advertisers and consumers. The comments, in a report published on Tuesday, puts Australia alongside Europe and Britain where regulators want to stop the Alphabet Inc unit trouncing rival advertisers by using the data it collects from people's online searches - including on maps and YouTube - to place marketing material. The U.S. justice department is meanwhile preparing an anti-monopoly lawsuit accusing Google of using its market muscle to hobble advertising rivals, according to media reports. "The Europeans and the U.K. are consulting on such laws at the moment and we're going to be trying to ... Read More on Datafloq

By Sabahatjahan Contractor (Reuters) - Videogame publisher Activision Blizzard and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) said on Monday they had reached an agreement to settle claims over sexual harassment and discrimination in the company's workplace. Under the agreement, Activision committed to create an $18 million fund to compensate and make amends to eligible claimants, the owner of "Call of Duty" and "Candy Crush" franchises said in a statement. The EEOC, which been investigating allegations of sexual harassment, discrimination and retaliation at Activision for three years, found that the company failed to take corrective and preventive measures on sexual harassment complaints, according to a filing in the U.S. District Court of the Central District of California. Activision Blizzard said it is appointing a third-party consultant for oversight and ... Read More on Datafloq

By Supantha Mukherjee STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Kepler Interactive, a game publisher co-owned and run by developers, on Tuesday said it got $120 million in funding from Chinese gaming firm NetEase Inc. The group, formed with seven gaming companies including Alpha Channel and Sloclap, plans to offer game studio founders to become co-owners, share resources and financial gains, while being charge of their own studios. "We have a studio committee, which meets on a weekly basis, they get involved in major company decisions, but they don't get involved into individual studio decisions, so the studios remain independent," CEO Alexis Garavaryan said in an interview. Sweden's Embracer had a somewhat similar model in which instead of partnering, it bought companies but allowed their founders to run them independently ... Read More on Datafloq

By Paresh Dave (Reuters) -Microsoft Corp's near-acquisition of social media app TikTok last year was the "strangest thing I've ever worked on," Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said on Monday. TikTok had been ordered by then-U.S. President Donald Trump to separate its U.S. version from Chinese parent ByteDance because of national security concerns about the collection of U.S. users' data. Microsoft in August 2020 began talks on the proposed acquisition but the deal collapsed by September. Trump's divestment push ended by the time he left office in January and no potential suitor ending up acquiring TikTok. Speaking at the Code Conference in Beverly Hills, California, Nadella said he was looking forward to bringing Microsoft's security, child safety and cloud expertise to TikTok. ... Read More on Datafloq

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chile's central bank will decide in early 2022 on a strategy for the potential roll-out of its own digital currency, the bank's president said on Monday, as policymakers worldwide seek to keep pace with fast-spreading cryptocurrencies. Regulators globally are cracking down on digital coins, alarmed at a rapidly expanding market that exceeded a record $2 trillion in April. China on Friday said it was banning all crypto trading and mining. In a presentation before legislators, central bank president Mario Marcel said he had formed a high-level working group to study a medium-term strategy for minting a "digital peso" in a bid to meet the needs of an "increasingly challenging payments industry." "From objectives linked to the needs of the public, financial stability and effectiveness of monetary policy, the Central Bank will define, at the beginning of 2022, a proposal with ... Read More on Datafloq

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's SK Innovation Co Ltd plans to invest 5.1 trillion won ($4.32 billion) to build battery production facilities in the United States through its battery joint venture with Ford Motor Co through 2027, the company said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday. The South Korean battery maker, which supplies electric car batteries to Ford Motor and Hyundai Motor Co, among others, has battery production sites in the United States, Hungary, China and South Korea. ($1 = 1,179.6200 won) (Reporting by Heekyong Yang; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall) ... Read More on Datafloq

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Monday said it would open a $1.9 billion program to reimburse mostly rural U.S. telecom carriers for removing network equipment made by Chinese companies deemed national security threats like Huawei and ZTE Corp. The program, which was finalized in July, will open Oct. 29 for applications through Jan. 14, 2022. Last year, the FCC designated Huawei and ZTE as national security threats to communications networks - a declaration that barred U.S. firms from tapping an $8.3 billion government fund to purchase equipment from the companies. The FCC in December adopted rules requiring carriers with ZTE or Huawei equipment to "rip and replace" that equipment. The issue is a big one for rural carriers that face high costs and difficulty finding workers to remove and replace equipment. ... Read More on Datafloq

By Nick Carey (Reuters) - The shift to electric vehicles will force huge changes in the auto industry and require EU backing for 'reskilling' programs to help workers prepare for a zero-emission future, according to a report published on Tuesday. The Platform for Electromobility, an industry group, said a report by the Boston Consulting Group showed by 2030 European auto industry employment will drop by less than 1% from 5.7 million people today amid the transition to electric vehicles. But jobs at manufacturers and traditional suppliers focused on combustion engines will drop 20% and 42% respectively - between them shedding a cumulative 500,000 positions. At the same time, employment at suppliers focused on zero-emission technology will rise by 300,000 workers, representing a 10% increase, the study said. ... Read More on Datafloq

By Ben Klayman DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co and its Korean battery partner SK Innovation will invest $11.4 billion to build an electric F-150 assembly plant, and three battery plants in the United States, accelerating the No. 2 U.S. automaker's push into electric vehicles. Ford also said on Monday it now expects to have 40% to 50% of its global vehicle volume to be all-electric by 2030, up from its prior forecast of 40%. The companies intend to create nearly 11,000 jobs by opening assembly and battery plants in Stanton, Tennessee, and two additional battery factories in Glendale, Kentucky, as part of Ford's previously announced plan to spend more than $30 billion through 2030 on electrification, Ford said. Plants on both sites will open in 2025. ... Read More on Datafloq

MILAN (Reuters) - Telecom Italia (TIM) will keep some of its offices closed as nearly 60% of the employees at Italy's biggest phone company plan to continue working from home until Dec. 31, a union document showed. Companies and governments around the world are figuring out how to manage the return of staff to offices after the coronavirus outbreak forced them to reorganise work models and allow most employees to work remotely. Italy has made its COVID-19 "Green Pass" - a certificate showing someone has received at least one vaccine dose, tested negative or recently recovered from the virus - mandatory for accessing workplaces from next month. While the government is pushing public sector workers to return to offices armed with the Green Pass from Oct. 15, private sector firms have until the end of the year to adjust their remote working policies. ... Read More on Datafloq

By Echo Wang NEW YORK (Reuters) - TikTok hit 1 billion monthly active users globally this summer, the company told Reuters, marking a 45% jump since July 2020. The United States, Europe, Brazil and Southeast Asia are the biggest markets for the popular short-video app, the company said. TikTok has experienced surges in users around the world in the past few years, despite regulatory scrutiny it is facing in the United States and other regions. The company previously said it had about 55 million global users by January 2018. That number rose to more than 271 million by December 2018, 508 million by December 2019, and 689 million by July 2020. Facebook reported 2.9 ... Read More on Datafloq

By Paresh Dave (Reuters) - Companies are struggling to recreate the serendipity of office interactions as many teams continue to work remotely due to the pandemic, but they could soon have a new option to try close the gap. Verizon Communications Inc's video chat app BlueJeans announced on Monday that it will begin testing a feature called Spaces, or virtual rooms where people as 3D cartoonish avatars can hang out, overhear conversations and join them. Rivals, including Zoom Video Communications Inc and Microsoft Corp, also have been developing features to foster spontaneous conversation in their chat tools. But BlueJeans' planned offering, which also is available in a 2D version with headshots replacing avatars, is among the most advanced. Verizon said it developed from the ground-up a new graphics rendering ... Read More on Datafloq

BEIJING (Reuters) - More than a thousand robots are set to join the delivery personnel ranks of Chinese behemoths Alibaba, Meituan and JD.com over the next year as the pandemic fuels demand for contactless services. The firms expect to operate over 2,000 robots between them by 2022, up about four-fold from now, their executives said, encouraged also by falling costs of making robots. Millions of couriers still deliver packages for as less as 3 yuan ($0.47) in China, but companies have been exploring the use of drones or box-like robots on wheels from as early as 2013 amid a labour crunch that has worsened due to the pandemic. Beijing has also ordered firms to ensure rest periods https://ift.tt/3kJmplG for couriers as they scramble to meet rising demand and deadlines. ... Read More on Datafloq

By Sheila Dang (Reuters) -Facebook Inc will invest $50 million to partner with organizations to responsibly build the so-called metaverse https://ift.tt/38LSm63 - a digital world where people can use different devices to move and communicate in a virtual environment, it said on Monday. Facebook, the world's largest social network, has invested heavily in virtual reality and augmented reality, developing hardware such as its Oculus VR headsets and working on AR glasses and wristband technologies. The company has been criticized over its impact on online safety. The new XR Programs and Research Fund will invest the money globally over two years to ensure metaverse technologies are "built in a way that's inclusive and empowering," Facebook said. The company said it plans to work with researchers across four areas including data privacy and safety, to ... Read More on Datafloq

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Binance, one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, said on Monday that users in Singapore would no longer be allowed buy and trade cryptocurrencies on its main platform, to comply with local regulation. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) this month warned Binance.com that it could be in breach of local laws and should stop providing payment services to the city-state's residents. From Oct. 26, users in Singapore will no longer be able to deposit fiat currencies, or buy or spot-trade cryptocurrencies on the platform, Monday's statement said - a significant tightening of restrictions announced shortly after the MAS's statement. Binance also operates a separate local platform, which has applied for a licence in Singapore. Like other applicants, it is allowed to operate in Singapore under an exemption while the MAS processes applications. ... Read More on Datafloq

By Josh Horwitz SHANGHAI (Reuters) -China's Xiaomi Corp said on Monday it was engaging a third-party expert to assess allegations by Lithuania that its smartphones carry built-in censorship capabilities. Lithuania's Defence Ministry last week urged consumers to throw away Chinese phones after a report by its National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) alleging that Xiaomi phones have built-in censorship capabilities. The dispute has blown up against a backdrop of souring relations with China, which demanded in August that Lithuania withdraw its ambassador in Beijing and said it would recall its envoy to Vilnius after Taiwan said that its mission there would be called the Taiwanese Representative Office. "While we dispute the characterisation of certain findings, we are engaging an independent third-party expert to assess the points raised in the report," a Xiaomi spokesperson said. ... Read More on Datafloq

By Clara-Laeila Laudette MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's Telefonica signed a multi-year deal with cloud-service provider Oracle to migrate most of its database systems to the cloud, the firms said on Monday, in preparation for the use of 5G and the Internet of Things. The telecoms operator, which already uses Oracle data systems, will transfer them to a fully cloud-based platform supporting its internal and commercial operations, including business intelligence services and billing, revenue and customer management products. The new platform will be operated by Oracle in Telefonica's own datacentres to keep costs down, ensure security and comply with European data laws, the joint statement said. "We need to consolidate and simplify our technological infrastructure... to build a robust and scalable cloud platform in our own data centres... to satisfy the ... Read More on Datafloq

(Reuters) -Several Apple Inc and Tesla Inc suppliers have suspended production at some Chinese factories for a number of days to comply with tighter energy consumption policies, putting supply chains at risk in the peak season for electronics goods. Two major Taiwanese chipmakers, however, said their China facilities are operating as normal. The development comes as tight coal supplies in China and toughening emissions standards have triggered a contraction in heavy industry in several regions, dragging on the country's economic growth rate, analysts have said. Apple supplier Unimicron Technology Corp late on Sunday said three of its China subsidiaries stopped production from midday on Sept. 26 until midnight on Sept. 30 to "comply with the local governments' electricity limiting policy". The Taiwanese maker of printed circuit boards said it did not expect significant impact ... Read More on Datafloq

By Foo Yun Chee LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - Alphabet unit Google on Monday criticised EU antitrust regulators for ignoring rival Apple as it launched a bid to get Europe's second-highest court to annul a record 4.34-billion euro ($5.1 billion) fine related to its Android operating system. Far from holding back rivals and harming users, Android has been a massive success story of competition at work, representatives of Google told a panel of five judges at the General Court in Luxembourg at the start of a five-day hearing. The European Commission fined Google in 2018, saying that it had used Android since 2011 to thwart rivals and cement its dominance in general internet search. "The Commission shut its eyes to the real competitive dynamic in this industry, that between Apple and ... Read More on Datafloq

Machine Learning has the tendency to evoke extreme reactions – some consider it a superpower while for others, machine learning is just another fad. That said, research has shown that 76% of enterprises have prioritized AI and Machine Learning initiatives over other IT projects. One in every 10 enterprises now uses multiple AI applications in the form of chatbots, fraud analysis, etc. It’s important to note though that Machine Learning can play a critical role in automating business processes only as long as certain prerequisites are met.Operational Prerequisites For Machine Learning models to be successful, the program must suit the context and it must meet certain criteria. Let’s look at some of the basics.First, There’s The Scope Of The Project To Be ConsideredMachine Learning excels at finding patterns in databases and detecting insights from these patterns. This makes it suitable for projects with specific goals. For example, it helps assess the sentiment behind product reviews an

Customer service is an important competitive differentiator in the prudent day’s insurance market. As there are a number of choices available in the market, insurance agencies need to go above and beyond their core service offerings in order to thrive in the competitive industry. By leveraging digitization and innovative solutions, insurance businesses can pave the way to success. They can adopt insurance analytics-powered solutions to offer personalized services, streamline their claims processes, and a lot more. The benefits of leveraging data analytics for driving business decisions can impact nearly all aspects of the business. Let’s explore how insurance data analytics is empowering businesses to build reliance and grow amidst disruptions:Understand the customer journeyA superior and consistent customer experience is key to the sustained growth of any insurance business. In order to create a truly excellent customer experience, insurance businesses must keep a tab on the customer’

HONG KONG/SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Cryptocurrency-linked stocks dropped in Hong Kong on Monday morning, after Chinese authorities intensified their crackdown on the industry, while major cryptocurrencies steadied. Shares of crypto asset manager and trading firm Huobi Tech, an affiliate of Huobi Global, one of the world's largest exchanges, fell more than 30% after the opening bell. Huobi Global said on Sunday it had stopped taking new mainland customers https://ift.tt/3m0UBsx from Friday and would close accounts belonging to mainland-China based clients by the end of the year to comply with local regulations. China's regulators intensified a crackdown https://ift.tt/3m0UBsx on Friday, banning cryptocurrency transactions and mining, and saying that overseas exchanges are barred from providing services to mainland investors via the internet and that mainland-China based employees of overseas crypto exchanges would be investigated. ... Read More on Datafloq

HONG KONG (Reuters) -Shares of China Evergrande's electric car unit plunged as much as 26% on Monday after it warned it faced an uncertain future unless it got a swift injection of cash and after it said it will not proceed with plans to issue RMB shares. The warning by China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group after the market closed on Friday was the clearest sign yet that the embattled property developer's liquidity crisis is worsening in other parts of its business. Shares of the electric car unit slid to as low as HK$1.66 in early trade before paring losses to fall 2.2%. China Evergrande's stock rose 5% to steady near the decade-low they made last week, while Evergrande dollar bonds were at distressed levels. In the broader market, concerns that a collapse at Evergrande could drive a global crisis have ebbed. ... Read More on Datafloq

By Samuel Shen and Andrew Galbraith SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Cryptocurrency exchanges and providers of crypto services are scrambling to sever business ties with mainland Chinese clients, after Beijing last Friday issued a blanket ban on all crypto trading and mining. In a culmination of years of efforts to rein in the sector, 10 powerful Chinese government bodies including the central bank, said overseas exchanges were barred from providing services to mainland investors via the internet - a previously grey area - and vowed to jointly root out "illegal" cryptocurrency activities. Huobi Global and Binance, two of the world's largest exchanges and popular with Chinese users, have stopped new registrations of accounts by mainland customers. Huobi also said it would clean up existing ones by the end of the year. ... Read More on Datafloq

(Reuters) - Cross-platform messaging platform Signal said https://twitter.com/signalapp/status/1442354759009247232 early Monday that it is currently down due to an outage affecting parts of its services. (Reporting by Aakriti Bhalla in Bengaluru, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips) ... Read More on Datafloq

By Nick Carey and Giulio Piovaccari OXFORD (Reuters) - Speed has always been paramount for supercar makers, and now they're in the race of their lives to go electric before climate policy cuts their combustion engines. That's why the likes of Ferrari and Mercedes-Benz are turning to startups such as Oxford-based electric motor company YASA for expertise and technology to solve the unique challenges of electrifying the highest-performance vehicles. Batteries are immensely heavy and electric motors overheat if driven too hard - big problems for a niche industry that charges hundreds of thousands of dollars for lightweight cars capable of screaming round 10 laps of a track at full throttle. This year Daimler bought YASA, which has developed an "axial flux" high-performance electric motor that weighs 23 kg (50.7 lb), ... Read More on Datafloq

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Digital money transfer group Wise Plc will join an Australian payments network which should allow transfers to be settled in the country faster and at lower cost, Chief Executive Officer Kristo Kaarmann said on Friday. The company will become a direct participant and shareholder in Australia's New Payments Platform (NPP), Kaarmann said. Wise said that joining the NPP will allow it to lower its average price of money transfers in or out of Australia by bypassing middlemen to clear and settle real-time payments instantly. Kaarmann did not say how much lower its rates would be after joining the NPP. It charges about 0.56% on its Australian transfers currently, the company said. That compares with the average 5% to 6% the country's major banks charge, according to Wise's ... Read More on Datafloq

(Reuters) -Alphabet Inc's Google will take a smaller cut when customers buy software from other vendors on its cloud marketplace, CNBC reported on Sunday. The Google Cloud Platform is cutting its percentage revenue share to 3% from 20%, CNBC said, citing a person familiar with the matter. https://cnb.cx/2XZp7ep "Our goal is to provide partners with the best platform and most competitive incentives in the industry. We can confirm that a change to our Marketplace fee structure is in the works and we'll have more to share on this soon," a Google Cloud spokesperson said in a statement to Reuters. Earlier this year, Google cut the service fee it charges developers on its app store by half on the first $1 million they earn in revenue in a year. (Reporting by Juby Babu in ... Read More on Datafloq

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's "eyes are wide open" when it comes to normalizing its relationship with China, Foreign Minister Marc Garneau said on Sunday, after three years of rocky ties with Beijing since the arrest and Friday's release of a Huawei Technologies executive. Garneau told CBC News the government is now following a four-fold approach to China: "coexist," "compete," "co-operate," and "challenge." Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, flew back to China after reaching an agreement with U.S. prosecutors to end a bank fraud case against her. That resulted in the scrapping of her nearly three year extradition battle in a Canadian court. Soon after Meng flew to China, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor - the two Canadians detained by Chinese authorities just days after Meng's arrest in December 2018 - were released by Beijing. ... Read More on Datafloq

By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC) will give Europe more clout and set standards and rules for the 21st century, the EU's trade and digital chiefs said, underscoring global concerns about China's growing power. The comments by Valdis Dombrovskis and Margrethe Vestager came ahead of the first TTC meeting in Pittsburgh on Wednesday and as the United States and Europe face off with China in areas ranging from trade to defence to technology and human rights. "There is real strategic and geopolitical importance to this new platform as a way in setting standards and rules for the 21st century. So we need this Council to amplify our status," Dombrovskis told reporters. Dombrovskis insisted, however, that the platform was not targeted at any ... Read More on Datafloq

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese cryptocurrency exchange Huobi Global said on Sunday it had stopped taking new mainland customers from Friday and would end contracts with mainland clients by the end of the year to comply with local regulations. China's regulators intensified a crackdown https://ift.tt/3CHEBSR on Friday, banning cryptocurrency transactions and mining, clarifying that overseas exchanges are barred from providing services to mainland investors via the internet. Huobi Global said in a statement it will conduct an orderly exit of its existing mainland clients on the premise that safety of their assets is guaranteed. (Reporting by Cheng Leng, Samuel Shen and Ryan Woo; Editing by William Mallard) ... Read More on Datafloq

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Geely aims to set up 5,000 battery swapping stations for electric vehicles (EV) globally by 2025, as sales grow in the world's biggest vehicle market, the automaker said in a statement on Sunday. A battery swapping station allows drivers to change car batteries to power the rides. Chinese automaker Nio Inc plans to have 4,000 battery swapping stations globally by 2025. China is promoting EV-related infrastructure facilities, including charging stations and battery swapping stations. (Reporting by Yilei Sun and Brenda Goh; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) ... Read More on Datafloq

WUZHEN, China (Reuters) - Chinese technology executives, facing a crackdown (https://ift.tt/3hrLsrH) by the authorities, pledged support on Sunday for Beijing's "common prosperity" drive and to help smaller companies. Alibaba Group CEO Daniel Zhang, a prime target (https://ift.tt/3m2Mc7N) of the broad crackdown, told a conference organised by China's top internet regulator that his company's $15 billion plan to boost common prosperity in China was "steadily advancing". Common prosperity - China's term for narrowing the gap between rich and poor - is "not just a number", Zhang said, stressing the importance of helping local talent in poor regions to "teach a man to fish". The World Internet Conference in Wuzhen in eastern China is organised by the Cyberspace Administration of China. The conference in the past has drawn such foreign executives as Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai, but overseas attendance was ... Read More on Datafloq

BEIJING (Reuters) - Tesla Inc's Shanghai factory is expected to produce 300,000 cars in the first nine months of the year, capped by a delivery rush in the end of the July-September quarter, despite a global semiconductor shortage, two sources said. The factory makes the electric Model 3 sedans and Model Y sport-utility vehicles for domestic and international markets, including Germany and Japan. Around 240,000 vehicles were shipped from the factory in the first eight months, including many for export, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association. Tesla has not announced details on the factory's production. The sources requested anonymity, as they were not allowed to speak to media. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In August, an official in the ... Read More on Datafloq

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Marco Rubio said on Saturday the release of Huawei's finance chief raised serious questions about President Joe Biden's ability to confront the threat posed by the technology giant and the Chinese Communist Party. Rubio, in a text message to Reuters, called on the Biden Administration to brief Congress urgently on the issue. Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou returned to China on Saturday after reaching an agreement with U.S. prosecutors on Friday to end the bank fraud case against her. "The release of Ms. Meng raises serious questions about President Biden's ability and willingness to confront the threat posed by Huawei and the Chinese Communist Party," said Rubio. "We have already seen how the administration's single-minded focus on climate is causing them to downplay genocide. This is just another example of the Biden Administration's dangerously soft approach ... Read More on Datafloq

(Reuters) - The United States, Japan, India and Australia will work to improve the security of supply chains for critical technologies such as clean energy and to ease a global semiconductor shortage, said Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison. The Quad nations, in their first in-person summit https://ift.tt/2Wa1VsT on Friday in Washington, agreed on a partnership to secure critical infrastructure, the White House said. Morrison told reporters after the meeting this will include connecting Australia's raw minerals with manufacturing and processing capabilities, and with end users in the United States, India and Japan, according to a transcript released on Saturday by his government. Australia is the world's biggest supplier of rare earths outside of China, and is a major supplier of minerals used in electric vehicle batteries, such as nickel, copper and cobalt. ... Read More on Datafloq

By David Stanway SHANGHAI (Reuters) -Chinese state media welcomed telecoms giant Huawei's chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, back to the "motherland" on Saturday, after more than 1,000 days under house arrest in Canada, on what they called unfounded charges of bank fraud. But they have kept silent about Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, the two Canadians released from Chinese custody in an apparent act of reciprocation by Beijing. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV carried a statement by the Huawei executive, written as her plane flew over the North Pole, avoiding U.S. airspace. Her eyes were "blurring with tears" as she approached "the embrace of the great motherland", Meng said. "Without a strong motherland, I wouldn't have the freedom I have today." ... Read More on Datafloq

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil's government expects to attract some 50 billion reais ($9.35 billion) in bids from a planned auction of fifth generation (5G) mobile spectrum, with auction rules to be issued by Monday, telecoms regulator Anatel Superintendent Abraão Balbino said on Friday. Balbino said that the value of the projected capital expenditures made by the companies will be discounted from the bids, with 40 billion reais in capital expenditures expected. ($1 = 5.3471 reais) (Reporting by Alberto Alerigi) ... Read More on Datafloq

By Moira Warburton and Sarah Berman VANCOUVER (Reuters) - After being stuck in Canada for nearly three years, largely confined to her multi-million-dollar house in Vancouver, Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou on Friday was set to return home to China https://ift.tt/2W88hJg. Like many top Chinese executives, Meng has remained an enigmatic figure. The 49-year-old CFO of Huawei Technologies had been widely tipped to one day take the helm of the tech giant her father founded. Seeming to thwart those expectations, Meng was detained in December 2018 at Vancouver International Airport on a U.S. warrant charging her with bank fraud for allegedly misleading HSBC Holdings about Huawei's business dealings in Iran. After Meng reached an agreement with U.S. prosecutors to resolve the case on Friday, a Canadian judge scrapped her ... Read More on Datafloq

By Paresh Dave (Reuters) - Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai in 2019 was warned that describing the company's Incognito browsing mode as "private" was problematic, yet it stayed the course because he did not want the feature "under the spotlight," according to a new court filing. Google spokesman José Castañeda told Reuters that the filing "mischaracterizes emails referencing unrelated second and third-hand accounts." The Alphabet Inc unit's privacy disclosures have generated regulatory and legal scrutiny in recent years amid growing public concerns about online surveillance. Users last June alleged in a lawsuit that Google unlawfully tracked their internet use when they were browsing Incognito in its Chrome browser. Google has said it makes clear that Incognito only stops data from being saved to a user's device and is fighting ... Read More on Datafloq

By Andrius Sytas VILNIUS (Reuters) - Lithuania's Defence Ministry is drafting legislation to ban state institutions from purchasing "untrustworthy" equipment, after finding a censoring feature in a Chinese smartphone company's flagship phone, Margiris Abukevicius, deputy minister at the Defence Ministry said. The censoring capability in Xiaomi's Mi 10T 5G phone software has been turned off for the "European Union region" but can be turned on remotely at any time, the country's National Cyber Security Centre said in a report on Tuesday. A Xiaomi spokesman said in a statement sent to Reuters on Wednesday its device "does not censor communications to or from its users". The Defence Ministry is now drafting the legislation to ban public institutions from procuring "untrustworthy" equipment, including smartphones, with a view to presenting it to the ... Read More on Datafloq

By Michelle Price WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Regulators globally are cracking down on cryptocurrencies, alarmed at a rapidly expanding market that exceeded a record $2 trillion in April. China on Friday said it was banning all crypto trading and mining, sending digital coins tumbling. Global regulators worry the rise in privately operated currencies could undermine their control of the financial and monetary systems, increase systemic risks, promote financial crime and hurt investors. In the United States, President Joe Biden's regulators have launched several efforts to rein in cryptocurrencies. Here's the breakdown: THE PRESIDENT'S WORKING GROUP ON STABLECOINS The President's Working Group on Financial Markets, comprising top financial regulators, is focusing on stablecoins, a type of digital ... Read More on Datafloq

By Karen Freifeld and Kenneth Li (Reuters) -Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou has reached an agreement with U.S. prosecutors to end the bank fraud case against her, according to sources familiar with the matter, in a process that should allow her to leave Canada and relieve a point of tension between economic super powers China and the United States. The U.S. government said it will appear in Brooklyn federal court to discuss a resolution of charges against Meng, according to a Friday court filing. Meng was arrested https://ift.tt/2LdowuK at Vancouver International Airport in December 2018 on a U.S. warrant, and was indicted on bank and wire fraud charges for allegedly misleading HSBC about the telecommunications equipment giant's business dealings in Iran, a story reported first https://ift.tt/2VgU8Dq by Reuters in 2012. Reuters also ... Read More on Datafloq

By Stephen Nellis (Reuters) - Intel Corp on Friday broke ground on two new factories in Arizona as part of its turnaround plan to become a major manufacturer of chips for outside customers. The $20 billion plants - dubbed Fab 52 and Fab 62 - will bring the total number of Intel factories at its campus in Chandler, Arizona, to six. They will house Intel's most advanced chipmaking technology and play a central role in the Santa Clara, California-based company's effort to regain its lead in making the smallest, fastest chips by 2025, after having fallen behind rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd. The new Arizona plants will also be the first Intel has built from the ground up with space reserved for outside customers. Intel has long made its own chips, but its turnaround plan calls for taking on work for outsiders ... Read More on Datafloq

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday announced a $1.2 bln investment to help three million school children access and afford broadband services around the country. Harris made the announcement during an appearance on the morning show "The View" on ABC. (Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington) ... Read More on Datafloq

Most industries in the marketplace have already embraced mobile technology, yet a few have barely given a thought to it. The insurance industry is one such industry that still needs to step up its digital game.So, what’s taking so long for the insurance industry to mobilize its solutions?Traditionally, the insurance industry is lukewarm towards change. In fact, the business model of the insurance industry has never undergone any significant changes in the last few decades. Since its inception, the insurance industry has followed and is continuing to follow, the same traditional policies and strategies even after the mobile app revolution. Reasons for this could be miscellaneous, but the primary factor is that most of the insurance agents today perceive software solutions to be risky and baseless. Also going mobile brings in vast changes to the institutional arrangements of the system which is once again considered a major risk.However, it is also a known fact that from industry giants

By Vishwadha Chander and Aditya Kalra BENGALURU (Reuters) - The Indian state of Karnataka, home to India's Silicon Valley, has proposed a ban on online games involving betting and wagering, sparking concerns that growing state regulations could hit the nascent but booming sector. Karnataka is proposing an amendment to the Karnataka Police Act to include such online games, seeking to ban "any act or risking money, or otherwise on the unknown result of an event including on a game of skill," according to the bill seen by Reuters. Many offences under the law already attract prison time, and the bill proposes to increase these penalties. The Karnataka government has said the bill is needed as youngsters from rural areas, mostly idle in the city during the COVID-19 pandemic, "have shown a tendency of becoming habitual gamblers." ... Read More on Datafloq

By David Kirton SHENZHEN, China (Reuters) -China's Huawei Technologies will see revenue from its smartphone business drop by at least $30-40 billion in 2021, with new growth streams unlikely to make up the shortfall in the next few years, chairman Eric Xu said. While the firm has been "getting used to U.S. sanctions" imposed on it since 2019, its new 5G related business areas cannot offset the losses from the handset business, Xu, who is rotating chairman this year, said at a press conference in Beijing on Friday. Former U.S. president Donald Trump put Huawei on an export blacklist in 2019 and barred it from accessing critical U.S.-origin technology, impeding its ability to design its own chips and source components from outside vendors. The sanctions hit Huawei's smartphone business particularly hard. ... Read More on Datafloq

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian internet firm Yandex plans to launch its cloud business in Germany in 2022, with an initial investment of $30 million, the company said ahead of its annual Yandex.Scale cloud conference on Friday. Yandex.Cloud's revenue is seen tripling to around 3 billion roubles in 2021 but, having launched in 2018, it remains one of Yandex's smaller business lines. Group revenue for 2021 is seen at between 330 and 340 billion roubles. "This is a very important step. We realise that we cannot be a significant global player on the cloud platform market by operating only in Russia," said Yandex.Cloud COO Oleg Koverznev. Yandex.Cloud has about 12,400 company clients. Koverznev said around 40 clients had said they were interested in Yandex offering cloud services in Germany, which was enough for the company to make the initial investment. ... Read More on Datafloq

By Julie Zhu HONG KONG (Reuters) - China's antitrust regulator is unlikely to approve Baidu's $3.6 billion acquisition of JOYY Inc's video-based domestic live streaming business YY Live, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. This follows Beijing's move to rein in gaming-related businesses and corporate expansion via deals, they said. The Baidu-JOYY deal would be the latest multi-billion dollar transaction to stumble amid China's broad crackdown on private companies, notably those in the internet sector, as Beijing seeks to control big data and break down monopolistic practices. A failure of the Baidu deal could cast a shadow over a separate planned transaction to take Nasdaq-listed JOYY private that would have valued it at up to $8 billion, said the sources and two other sources who are ... Read More on Datafloq