Month: June 2022
Klarna CEO defends business despite massive losses and layoffs
Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski has defended his company’s business model and the controversial “buy now, pay later” industry. Klarna lets consumers buy things that they might not necessarily be able to afford at that moment in time. Its 150 million customers pay a relatively small amount up front and pay back the rest later. In […]
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Hungary says it’s impossible for Europe to ban Russian gas anytime soon. Putin agrees
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has ruled out the prospect of a Russian gas ban in the European Union’s next package of sanctions, saying it would be “impossible.” Landlocked Hungary is overwhelmingly dependent on Russian hydrocarbons. Szijjarto’s comments come as President Vladimir Putin says he believes the West will not be able to wean itself […]
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Bank of England says top UK banks no longer “too big to fail”
BOE Governor Andrew Bailey has warned the Bank is walking a “narrow path” between growth and inflation. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images The Bank of England said on Friday it was satisfied that Britain’s top banks could be shut down without putting at risk the stability of the financial system or disrupting customers, but […]
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Putin appears to hint at further invasions; Zelenskyy says Ukrainian forces holding on in the Donbas
Kremlin struggling to provide basic services to Russian-occupied territories, UK says The ruined seaside city of Mariupol is at risk of a major cholera outbreak, according to the U.K.’s Ministry of Defense. Stringer | Afp | Getty Images Russia is struggling to provide basic public services to the population in Russian-occupied territories, with the ruined […]
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‘Buy now, pay later’ firms were already in trouble. Apple just gave them one more thing to worry about
Apple Pay Later will let users pay for things over four equal installments. Jakub Porzycki | Nurphoto | Getty Images AMSTERDAM — Apple’s move into the crowded “buy now, pay later” space has raised the stakes for the fintech companies that pioneered the trend. The iPhone maker announced plans to launch its own “pay later” […]
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China struggles to stamp out Covid as Beijing, Shanghai reimpose some restrictions
People wait in line for nucleic acid tests to detect COVID-19 at a testing site on June 9, 2022, in Beijing, China. China says it has generally controlled recent outbreaks in Beijing after hundreds of people tested positive for the virus in recent weeks. Kevin Frayer | Getty Images News | Getty Images BEIJING — […]
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Russia and Ukraine are battling over underwater mines as the global food crisis worsens
Turkish Navy’s Aydin class mine hunting vessel TCG Akcay sails in the Bosphorus on its way to the Black Sea in Istanbul, Turkey March 26, 2022. Yoruk Isik | Reuters The world is facing a global food crisis as a result of the war in Ukraine, with soaring prices being felt around the world as […]
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Carrie Lam says Hong Kong hasn’t become ‘just another Chinese city’
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said the national security law was “absolutely necessary” to ensure Hong Kong’s stability. In an interview with CNBC on Friday, Lam said: “Looking back, I think the enactment and implementation of a national security law, as well as the subsequent improvements to the electoral system, are absolutely necessary to ensure […]
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Diseases suppressed during Covid are coming back in new and peculiar ways
Dowell | Moment | Getty Images The Covid-19 pandemic has abated in much of the world and, with it, many of the social restrictions implemented to curb its spread, as people have been eager to return to pre-lockdown life. But in its place have emerged a series of viruses behaving in new and peculiar ways. […]
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A.I. gurus are leaving Big Tech to work on buzzy new start-ups
DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman, who recently left his VP of AI product management and AI policy role at Google, also co-founded the machine learning start-up Inflection AI. Suleyman has already hired several of his former colleagues. Bloomberg | Getty Images Artificial intelligence gurus are quitting top jobs at companies like Google, Meta, OpenAI and DeepMind […]
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