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☆ India may exempt 30 GW of solar plants from equipment duty - sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Sarita Chaganti Singh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Solar panels are seen inside the premises of the Jaisalmer Airport in desert state of Rajasthan, India, August 13, 2015. REUTERS/Anindito MukherjeeNEW DELHI, Jan 11 (Reuters) - India may exempt some solar projects from paying duties on equipment imports, according to government and industry sources, to bring renewable-energy capacity additions back on schedule and lower consumer power tariffs. Projects with 30 gigawatts of capacity will benefit, the sources said. Solar power projects with a combined capacity of at least 30 gigawatts have been either delayed or are facing an uncertain future due to the increase in module prices and also due to supply constraints, according to the National Solar Energy Federation of India. Imported solar modules cost about 40 cents per watt of capacity while domestic ones cost 37 cents per watt.

☆ Facebook owner Meta removing content backing Brazil assault
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Supporters of Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro demonstrate against President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in Brasilia, Brazil, January 8, 2023. REUTERS/Adriano MachadoSTOCKHOLM, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Facebook parent Meta (META.O) said on Monday it was removing content supporting or praising the weekend ransacking of Brazilian government buildings by anti-democratic demonstrators. "We are actively following the situation and will continue removing content that violates our policies." Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes has ordered social media platforms to block users spreading anti-democratic propaganda. During a demonstration by Trump supporters in January, 2021, social media companies were criticised for not doing enough.

☆ Ericsson's Cloud Software and Services unit books $76 mln charge
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

STOCKHOLM, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Ericsson (ERICb.ST) on Wednesday announced a 800 million crown ($76 million) fourth-quarter charge linked to dropping some contracts and products at its loss-making Cloud Software and Services business. Its cash flow would take a 700 million crown hit from the action, mainly in 2023, it added. Shares in Ericsson, which is due to report fourth-quarter earnings on Jan. 20, were up 1.2% at 1259 GMT. "That said, we still view Ericsson as a strong trade for 2023." ($1 = 10.5121 Swedish crowns)Reporting by Anna Ringstrom and Supantha Mukherjee, editing by Terje Solsvik and John StonestreetOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

"As counterintuitive as it may sound, this layoff left me in a really good position," the 24-year-old said. U.S. tech giants including Meta, Microsoft (MSFT.O), Twitter and Snap (SNAP.N) have purged more than 150,000 staff, according to Layoff.fyi, which tracks technology job losses. Day One Ventures, an early stage venture fund in San Francisco, launched a new initiative in November to fund startups founded by people who had been laid off from their tech jobs, touting the slogan "Funded, not Fired". Silicon Valley investor U.S. Venture Partners and Austrian VC firm Speedinvest have meanwhile earmarked a similar amount for newly founded companies. Fong told Reuters that experience in Big Tech firm gave founders a "strong brand that can be leveraged to meet investors, potential customers, and recruit team members".

☆ Malawi delays reopening schools as cholera cases surge
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] Pilirani Wanja, a clinician at Ndirande Health Centre, demonstrates to clients how to take the cholera vaccine in response to the latest cholera outbreak in Blantyre, Malawi, November 16, 2022. REUTERS/Eldson ChagaraBLANTYRE, Malawi, Jan 2 (Reuters) - Malawi has delayed the opening of public schools in the southern African country's two major cities of Blantyre and Lilongwe, the health minister said Monday, to try to slow down a surge in cholera deaths. Cholera is an annual problem during Malawi's rainy months from November to March, where the number of deaths is around 100 a year. The global stockpile of cholera vaccines the World Health Organization helps manage is "currently empty or extremely low", a WHO official said last month amid a resurgence of the disease. Chiponda called on authorities to tighten control measures, including spraying chlorine to disinfect congested places such as markets and schools and stepping up inoculations.

SAO PAULO, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Pele, the legendary Brazilian soccer player who rose from barefoot poverty to become one of the greatest and best-known athletes in modern history, died on Thursday at the age of 82. The death of the only man to win the World Cup three times as a player was confirmed on his Instagram account. [1/4] Legendary Brazilian soccer player Pele waves to the spectators before the start of the under-17 boys' final soccer match of the Subroto Cup tournament at Ambedkar stadium in New Delhi, India, October 16, 2015. Brazil's CBF soccer federation said Pele "gave us a new Brazil and we can only thank him for his legacy." Kylian Mbappé, the French star many view as the current best soccer player in the world, offered his condolences.

☆ Black creators say they ‘have to be perfect’ to get promotional products from brands. They want that to change.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Daysia Tolentino | Daysia Tolentino Is A Culture | Trends Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +12 min

Black creators, like Bumba, have been vocal about how the lack of gifting to creators of color demonstrates the inequity in influencer marketing. Black creators say they still feel they have to work twice as hard as their white counterparts. Nimay Ndolo, a Black comedy creator with 1.9 million TikTok followers, said Black creators are often excluded from such opportunities, which limits their success. Black creators have to be “extraordinary” to get what white influencers appear to get with ease, Ndolo said. “I want to see, like, these creators that I’ve been watching — these Black creators, these queer creators, these Hispanic creators, these Asian creators — get more opportunities," she said.

Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark echoed that sentiment in a interview: "Our exit will be complete. "This will allow us to organise modern production of telecoms equipment in Russia," he said, without naming the operators or producers. Government programs to promote Russian equipment have helped telecoms operators become less reliant on Nokia and Ericsson over the past several years and Russian producers have increased their market share this year to 25.2% from 11.6% in 2021. Russian telecom operators stockpiled foreign-made parts in February and March ahead of sanctions, two of the industry sources said, but inventory will drop after Nokia and Ericsson pull the plug Dec. 31. Consolidation between Russian operators at the behest of the government might also allow them to share equipment and resources to make the networks last longer, industry sources added.

☆ Germany ups reliance on Huawei for 5G despite security fears -survey
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Sarah Marsh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Many European countries have banned Chinese companies from all or part of their 5G networks on security grounds, amid intense diplomatic pressure from the United States. Germany, home to operators like Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE) and O2 (O2Dn.DE), passed an IT security law two years ago setting high hurdles for makers of telecommunications equipment for the "critical components" of 5G networks. The German network agency referred Reuters to regulation that shows differentiated treatment for core and RAN components. The information security office did not reply to a request for comment on whether the high share of Chinese components could pose a security threat. A strategy paper by Germany's Greens-run economy ministry has recommended increased scrutiny of components from authoritarian states in critical infrastructure.

☆ Siddhartha Mukherjee on How Cellular Medicine Could Fight Cancer, Diabetes
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Alex Ossola | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

It took centuries for scientists to get a complete picture of the cell, the tiny units of life that make up every living thing. Flash forward, and doctors are increasingly working at the cellular level, transplanting or altering individual cells to find treatments for diseases like cancer and diabetes. Siddhartha Mukherjee, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and cancer physician, believes this new understanding of cellular medicine could lead to medical breakthroughs—ways to repair our cells, or someday even enhance them. In his latest book, “The Song of the Cell,” Dr. Mukherjee also warns of ethical gray areas that could result from cellular medicine’s potential to augment human cells.

The phased rollout of its “EU data boundary” will apply to all of its core cloud services – Azure, Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365 and Power BI platform. Big businesses have become increasingly anxious about the international flow of customer data since the EU introduced the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2018, which protects user privacy. "The first phase will be customer data. And then as we move into the next phases, we will be moving logging data, service data and other kind of data into the boundary," she said. Microsoft has previously said it would challenge government requests for customer data, and that it would financially compensate any customer whose data it shared in breach of GDPR.

☆ Ericsson sees margin at lower end of target; pushes for cost cuts
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

SummarySummary Companies Company to reach lower end of 15-18% EBITA range by 2024Accelerating cost cuts of 9 bln SEK by end of next yearSTOCKHOLM, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson (ERICb.ST) said on Thursday it would reach the lower end of its long-term target of a profit (EBITA) margin of 15-18% by 2024 as several of its more profitable markets show signs of slowing down. While U.S. and other markets are slowing down, Ericsson is hoping newer markets such as India would help it balance some of the lower demand for 5G equipment. The company is now accelerating plans to cut costs by 9 billion crowns ($880 million) by the end of 2023. While demand for 5G equipment has been strong, the early stages of rollouts tend to have lower margins, meaning telecom groups such as Ericsson and Finnish rival Nokia (NOKIA.HE) rely on patent royalties to boost profits. On Wednesday, Ericsson said U.S. regulators had extended its monitoring of the company for compliance following the 2019 settlement for one more year.

☆ Nobel awards to take place in Stockholm with full glitz and glamour
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

NTB/Haakon Mosvold Larsen via REUTERSSTOCKHOLM, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Nobel laureates congregated in the Swedish capital Stockholm on Saturday for the first fully in-person award ceremonies complete with a formal banquet since the COVID-19 pandemic that curtailed events in the past two years. Five of the six Nobel prizes are awarded in Stockholm every year after a nomination process that is kept secret for the next 50 years. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo where separate festivities are held. The Nobel Foundation has also snubbed the ambassadors of Russia and Belarus, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Jailed Belarusian activist Ales Byalyatski, Russian rights group Memorial and Ukraine's Center for Civil Liberties won the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize.

LONDON/STOCKHOLM, Dec 7 (Reuters) - The European tech industry saw $400 billion in value wiped out this year and an 18% decline in venture capital funding, according to a report from venture capital firm Atomico. "The European tech ecosystem is facing the most challenging macroeconomic environment since the global financial crisis," Tom Wehmeier, partner at Atomico, told Reuters. Venture capital funding in Europe was down to $85 billion for the year, based on data collected across 41 countries, an 18% decline from the $100 billion raised in 2021. In a survey of founders and investors on the continent, 77% said they were either as enthusiastic, or more so, about the future of the European tech industry than in 2021. "The financial markets have changed, and with that, the expectations of everyone working within the European tech industry need to evolve."

Google recently conducted an experiment in Europe where it sought to counter anti-refugee narratives online in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Like other countries, misinformation spreads rapidly across India, mostly through social media, creating political and religious tensions. Indian government officials have called on tech companies such as Google, Meta, and Twitter to take stronger action against the spread of fake news. Inflammatory messages have also spread via Meta's messaging service Whatsapp, which has more than 200 million users in India. The company's recent research on the subject suggested viewers were 5% more likely to identify misinformation after watching such videos.

☆ South Africa's Ramaphosa: ANC executive to decide my fate
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

JOHANNESBURG, Dec 4 (Reuters) - South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Sunday it was up to the governing party's National Executive Committee (NEC) to decide his future in the face of allegations of misconduct against him. Ramaphosa has denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged with any crimes. The president's allies have rallied around him and on Saturday his spokesman said he would not resign. The governing African National Congress (ANC) party's National Working Committee (NWC) was meeting in Johannesburg on Sunday to discuss the panel's report. "It is up to the National Executive Committee, to which I am accountable, to take whatever decision (it deems fit)."

☆ South Africa's ruling ANC to meet on Sunday to discuss president's fate
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

JOHANNESBURG, Dec 3 (Reuters) - South Africa's African National Congress will meet on Sunday, it said on Saturday, to continue a meeting it halted midway on Friday to discuss the future of President Cyril Ramaphosa who has been suspected of misconduct. An enquiry by an independent parliamentary panel found that Ramaphosa might have committed misconduct when investigations revealed that he kept millions of dollars in cash at his private game farm. The president has denied any wrongdoing. Reporting by Promit Mukherjee, Editing by William MacleanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ South Africa's Ramaphosa will not resign, spokesperson says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

JOHANNESBURG, Dec 3 (Reuters) - South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will not resign and will seek a second term as leader of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) after allies rallied behind him to stay on, a spokesperson from the president's office said on Saturday. "President Ramaphosa is not resigning based on a flawed report, neither is he stepping aside," Ramaphosa's spokesperson Vincent Magwenya told journalists by text message. Ramaphosa has denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged with any crimes. The president would challenge the report and its findings, the spokesperson said. "It is in the long term interest and sustainability of our constitutional democracy... that such a clearly flawed report is challenged."

☆ Spotify CEO renews attack on Apple after Musk's salvo
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

loadingEk tagged a number of sympathetic business leaders in his 21-tweet thread, including Musk, Microsoft president Brad Smith, and Proton founder Andy Yen. Spotify has previously submitted antitrust complaints against Apple in various countries, alleging the 30% charge has forced Spotify to "artificially inflate" its own prices. Tim Sweeney, the CEO of "Fortnite" maker Epic Games, tweeted on Wednesday that fighting Apple's "monopoly" was "an American issue transcending party politics". Musk is expected to talk with European Commissioner Thierry Breton via videocall on Wednesday afternoon, though the agenda was unknown. The pair previously met in Texas in May, ahead of Musk's $44 billion purchase of Twitter, where they signaled broad agreement on EU tech regulation policy.

Musk also suggested Apple had threatened to block Twitter from its app store, although he did not explain why. loadingSpotify has previously submitted antitrust complaints against the iPhone-maker in Europe, and Epic Games sued Apple in the United States in 2020. The European Commission has been investigating whether Apple's rules for app developers violate its rules after Spotify filed an antitrust case against Apple in 2019. "Apple continues to disadvantage competitors, and the impact is huge - on consumers, app developers, and now, authors and publishers. Apple, Twitter and Spotify did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

☆ Want to create a startup? Join another first
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Supantha Mukherjee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] A sticker of French ride-sharing start-up BlaBlaCar is seen on a car May 27, 2017 at Le Coudray-Montceaux, near Paris, France. Each of those companies has led to the creation of more than 20 startups, helmed by former employees. Former employees from each of the newer startups like Babylon, Celonis, iZettle (IPO-IZET.ST) and SumUp have also created more than 10 companies. "Unicorns tend to create more rounded founders than large organizations like the tech behemoths because people have had kind of a better training ground for entrepreneurial activity," Nelis said. Employees in a startup tends to get access to many different functions from engineering to sales, giving them exposure to various parts of the business, he said.

But a new U.S. law offering hefty subsidies to local manufacturers of green technology has given the company pause for thought. That is roughly four times what the German government is offering, he said, with cheaper energy prices in the United States on top. The act introduces tax credits related to investment in green technology, plus tax breaks for consumers buying an electric vehicle or other green product made in North America. German carmakers and suppliers, for which the United States is a main export market, are among its biggest victims. "If we don't do anything, a lot will emerge in the United States," said Siemens Energy (ENR1n.DE) Chief Executive Christian Bruch.

☆ Chinese nickel firm Lygend to raise $470 mln in Hong Kong IPO - sources
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( Alexander Marrow | Supantha Mukherjee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Nov 25 (Reuters) - Chinese nickel producer and trader Lygend Resources has priced shares at HK$15.80 apiece to raise $470m in its Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO), according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. The Ningbo-based firm sold 232.54 million shares in the IPO, the fourth largest in Hong Kong so far in 2022. The biggest IPO fundraising so far this year has been CALB's (3931.HK) $1.28 billion issue. The company says it is the world's largest nickel product trader, and the largest in China in terms of nickel ore trading in 2021, with a market share of 26.8% in 2021. ($1 = 7.8120 Hong Kong dollars)Reporting by Scott Murdoch in Sydney and Georgina Lee in Hong Kong; Additional reporting Gao Zhuo; Editing by Kenneth MaxwellOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Mobile operator Veon to sell Russian business for $2.2 bln
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Veon also operates Beeline in Kazakhstan and Kyivstar in Ukraine. Veon said the management buyout of Vimpelcom implied an expected enterprise value of approximately 370 billion roubles. Though Veon is selling at a discount, the transaction represents a relatively rare example of money changing hands between parties as companies race to exit Russia. The shares have traded near record lows since tumbling after Russia began what it calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine. "The management buyout of our Russian operations will benefit all involved," Veon CEO Kaan Terzioglu said in a statement to Reuters.

☆ India is harnessing renewable energy through the world's biggest solar farm. Here's how it happened.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( James O'Malley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Meanwhile, the world's richest countries pledged to contribute to a fund that would help developing countries deal with climate disasters. Since construction began in 2015, Bhadla Solar Park has slowly grown to cover an enormous 5,700-hectare desert site with solar panels. Sustainable financeThe park was built in four phases, with each field of solar panels larger than the last. "Transmission lines take about ten times as long to build as it takes to put up solar panels," Mukherjee said. "When you see technology costs dropping, sometimes precipitously like they have with solar panels, then the opportunity to do more just grows and grows."

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