Suspected dealers in Murcia held lottery for their clients with prizes of drugs, whisky and a leg of hamSpanish police have arrested two suspected drug dealers who were raffling off a Christmas basket containing cocaine, hashish, alcohol and a leg of c…
Winter solstice 2021 celebrations – in pictures
Revellers in England and Ireland mark the shortest day of the year and official first day of winter Continue reading…
Voi scooters raises $115M Series D round as it preps to enter new cities — and for an IPO
The European e-scooter market is currently the main battleground for companies playing in the micromobility space, taking advantage as they are of Europe’s relatively compact cities and the desire of populations to move to more sustainable transportation. In 2021, players like Tier, Voi and Dott continued to raise VC backing. But the war for funding […]
Melbourne-based edtech startup Vivi raises $20M to accelerate overseas expansion in race to reach 1M classrooms
Australian edtech startup Vivi has raised $20 million from education investor Quad Partners, funds that it intends to use to improve its platform, upgrade its operational infrastructure and hire more sales and marketing teams in the Americas, Europe and Asia. This latest round sees Vivi reach $24.3 in total capital over five years, after it […]
Could Supernova be an ‘ethical alternative’ to the social media giants?
Supernova is a new app that has now gone live on the Apple and Android app stores billing itself as a new “ethical alternative” to Instagram and Facebook, where most of the ad revenues go to charities. Does it have a chance? It would be fair to say that after many years of either watching […]
Covid live: UK reports 82,886 new cases in huge weekly jump; Omicron dominant in Ireland
Latest UK daily cases show a 72% jump on the 48,071 new infections recorded last Sunday; Irish officials say 52% of cases estimated to be new variantUK health secretary refuses to rule out further curbs before ChristmasThe science case for more Covid r…
Germany tightens restrictions on travel from UK to curb Omicron spread
Carriers banned from transporting British tourists to Germany as it classifies UK as virus variant area of concernCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageGermany is tightening restrictions on travel from the UK in an attempt to cur…
Rahm Emanuel leads confirmed Biden nominees in late-night logjam break
Ex-Obama chief of staff will go to Japan after deal for vote on Russia pipeline sanctions ends Republican Senate resistanceThe former Obama White House chief of staff and Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel was among more than 30 ambassadors and other Biden nom…
Adtech vendors still tracking EU users who deny consent via IAB’s TCF, study suggests
New research examining what happens after Internet users in Europe land on an ad-supported website and express their “privacy choices” — using a flagship ad industry consent management platform which is supposed to allow them to control the types of ads they receive (i.e. non-tracking vs “personalized”) — has raised fresh questions over the IAB […]
Voodoo bets on play-to-earn crypto mobile games
French startup Voodoo has announced that it plans to make a significant investment in blockchain-powered mobile games. The company estimates that it represents a $200 million investment over the coming years. 2021 has been an important year for crypto gaming, with Axie Infinity popularizing the play-to-earn model. Some companies, such as Mythical Games, raised massive […]