Tag: Business News

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Covid Variant Adds to Worker Anxieties

For much of the pandemic, Amazon has offered free on-site Covid testing for employees. It incorporated a variety of design features into warehouses to promote social distancing. But a worker at an Amazon warehouse in Oregon, who did not want to be named for fear of retribution, said there had been a gradual reduction in safety features, like the removal of physical barriers to enforce social distancing.Kelly Nantel, an Amazon spokeswoman, said that the company had removed barriers in some parts of warehouses where workers don’t spend much time in proximity, but that it had kept up distancing …

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After the Floods, China Found a Target for Its Pain: Foreign Media

After extreme flooding in central China last week destroyed homes, engulfed subways and killed at least 73, the ruling Communist Party found a convenient outlet for the public’s pent-up emotions: the foreign news media.A party organization in Henan Province issued a call to arms on social media to confront a BBC journalist covering the disaster there. A day later angry residents surrounded, pushed and yelled at reporters from Deutsche Welle and The Los Angeles Times. Then nationalistic commentators and news organizations used the videos and screenshots of the confrontation to wage a large-scale online attack on journalists working for …

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Will the Delta Variant Wreck the Recovery?

The good economic news, when it comes to the ascendant Delta variant of the coronavirus, is that it puts the economy at risk in only two ways. The bad news: They are supply and demand.So far, the recovery remains robust by most available data. Real-time indicators of business activity show little evidence that Americans are pulling back their economic activity in any meaningful way.But while there is no reason to expect a repeat of the huge disruption of 2020, the new variant puts at risk the kind of rapid recovery that has been underway for months. Just as major …

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New C.D.C. mask guidance complicates back-to-office plans.

Daily Business BriefingJuly 28, 2021Updated July 28, 2021, 12:00 p.m. ETJuly 28, 2021, 12:00 p.m. ET The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revised its mask guidance for vaccinated Americans on Tuesday.Credit…Benjamin Norman for The New York TimesTwo months after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was OK for vaccinated people to forgo masks indoors, the agency reversed course on Tuesday, saying that Americans should put masks on again — at least in areas where the coronavirus infection rate is high.The official guidance — swayed by research on the Delta variant, which is causing rising case counts and “breakthrough” infections of …

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Shopify’s Q2 results beat estimates as e-commerce shines

Canadian e-commerce juggernaut Shopify this morning reported its second-quarter financial performance. Like Microsoft and Apple in the wake of their after-hours earnings reports, its shares are having a muted reaction to the better-than-expected results.
In the second quarter of 2021, Shopify reported revenues of $1.12 billion, up 57% on a year-over-year basis. The company’s subscription products grew 70% to $334.2 million, while its volume-driven merchant services drove their own top line up 52% to $785.2 million.
Investors had expected Shopify to report revenue of $1.05 billion.
Shopify also posted an enormous second-quarter profit. Indeed, from its $1.12 billion in total revenues, Shopify managed to generate $879.1 million in GAAP …

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Spotify’s podcast ad revenue jumps 627% in Q2

In the minutes before its quarterly earnings call this morning, Spotify played advertisements for its Originals & Exclusives, like the true crime show “Deathbed Confessions,” and the sex and relationships podcast “Call Her Daddy,” which Spotify recently acquired in a deal worth $60 million. Sure, it’s kind of hilarious to hear a recording of host Alex Cooper’s voice say, “Hey, daddy gang!” as investors log in to an 8 AM call, but the subtext rang clear: Spotify is serious about growing its podcast business.
Given how many podcasting companies Spotify has acquired over the past few years, it would be concerning …

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Financial firms should leverage machine learning to make anomaly detection easier

Bikram Singh
Contributor

Bikram Singh is the CEO and co-founder of EZOPS. He has built and managed operational services and technology solutions for banks, hedge funds, asset managers, fund administrators and custodians.

Anomaly detection is one of the more difficult and underserved operational areas in the asset-servicing sector of financial institutions. Broadly speaking, a true anomaly is one that deviates from the norm of the expected or the familiar. Anomalies can be the result of incompetence, maliciousness, system errors, accidents or the product of shifts in the underlying structure of day-to-day processes.
For the financial services industry, detecting anomalies is …

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Algramo aims to cut plastic waste with a reusable container ecosystem and $8.5M A round

Single-use plastic containers make up a huge amount of the world’s waste, but so far no one has come up with a good way to replace them that’s also easy for consumers and cost-effective. Algramo may have cracked this nut with a combination of reusable containers and distribution points that both makes and saves money, and it’s about to expand its footprint in a big way with a new $8.5M funding round.
Founded in Chile nearly a decade ago, Algramo is now findings its legs as companies in multiple industries find themselves under immense pressure to go …

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48-hour countdown to early bird savings on passes to TC Disrupt 2021

What’s big enough, bold enough and influential enough to inspire more than 10,000 people around the world to carve out three days from their intensely busy schedules? If you said TechCrunch Disrupt 2021, the grand matriarch of startup tech conferences, well friend, you’d be right on the money.
And speaking of money, you have just 48 hours left to score the early-bird price on TC Disrupt Innovator, Founder and Investor passes. Buy any of these passes and attend all three days of Disrupt for less than $100. Here’s the catch: The early bird price expires on July 30 at 11:59 pm (PT).
Don’ …

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