Year: 2023

Meta’s EU ad-free subscription faces early privacy challenge

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Meta’s shiny new bid to circumvent European Union privacy rules — by offering users a false choice between paying it a hefty monthly subscription for ad-free versions of Facebook and Instagram or agreeing to give up their privacy rights in exchange for free access to its social networks, meaning they will be tracked and profiled by the behavioral advertising giant — has been targeted with a complaint filed by privacy rights group noyb in Austria. As soon as Meta’s plan to deploy a ‘pay or okay’ tactic to game a consent legal basis leaked to journalists last month noyb committed to fighting it “up and down the courts”. It’s making good on that pledge now by kicking off a challenge with Austria’s data protection authority. Meta’s ad-free subscription for regional users has an initial cost of €9.99/month on web or €12.99/month on iOS or Android per linked Facebook and Instagram accounts in a user’s Accounts Center (with an additional fee of €6/month on web and €8/month on iOS or Android set to apply for each …

Sunak cancelling meeting after Greek PM’s Parthenon marbles comments ‘wasn’t a snub’, minister claims – UK politics live | Politics

Published by Sam

Rishi Sunak cancels meeting with Greek PM amid Parthenon marbles row Good morning. Rishi Sunak does not have all the qualities of a great human being but, among other virtues, he is generally calm and polite, and that makes his row with the Greek PM about the Parthenon marbles even harder to comprehend than it otherwise would be. The official explanation is that Sunak cancelled his meeting with Kyriakos Mitsotakis because Mitsotakis went back on a promise not to raise the issue of the sculptures during his three-day visit to the UK. But did anyone in No 10 seriously think that Mitsotakis would be able to get through media interviews without being asked about the subject? And so if the pretext for cancelling the meeting was flaky, was this all just some political ruse to present Sunak in a positive light ahead of the election. (One of the problems with political commentary at this stage of the political cycle is that it is assumed that everything is motivated by calculations about electoral positioning. Roughly 80% …

Geert Wilders says he is there for ‘everyone’ amid uncertainty over Dutch government formation – Europe live | Netherlands

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Wilders argues he is there for ‘everyone’ amid uncertainty over government formation Geert Wilders, the Dutch far-right leader whose Party for Freedom (PVV) won the most seats in last week’s election, is upping efforts to portray himself as an acceptable possible prime minister. The Party for Freedom is a “broad” people’s party, he wrote on social media this morning. “2.4 million people voted for us. High and low educated, native and immigrant, employed, retired, young and old. From the city, the countryside,” he wrote, adding: “The PVV is there for everyone”. But despite his strong election performance, Wilders’ views remain controversial – and it is unclear if the PVV can reach agreements with other parties to form a coalition. Geert Wildersmeets the press as Dutch parties’ lead candidates meet for the first time after elections. Photograph: Piroschka van de Wouw/Reuters Updated at 08.17 GMT Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature Tom van der Meer, a professor of political science at the University of Amsterdam, said today that when …

The best recent crime and thriller writing – review roundup | Thrillers

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It has been 10 years since Terry Hayes published the international hit I Am Pilgrim, and it’s fair to say that his second novel, The Year of the Locust (Bantam), has been much anticipated. Emerging dazed and somewhat brutalised after two intense days reading this utterly gripping, elegantly written 650-page-plus thriller, I can say that it was most definitely worth the wait. Kane (not his real name) works for the CIA, one of a small group of spies who specialises in entering “denied access areas – places under total hostile control such as Russia and Syria, North Korea, Iran, and the tribal zones of Pakistan”. So when an asset with information that could save the west from a terrorist attack on the scale of 9/11 needs exfiltrating from the wilds of Iran, he is sent in. Kane is a fantastic character: preternaturally brilliant and brave, humble and insightful, he comes up with a solution no matter what he’s faced with, and is the sort of narrator who calmly says things such as: “It was now …

As pet owners turn to mobile insurance apps, Lassie raises $25M Series B led by Balderton

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We last wrote about Lassie, a pet health app and insurance provider, when it closed an €11 million Series A round in 2022. It’s growth had been spurred by the boom in pet ownership during the pandemic (nearly half of all European households now own a pet, and and owners spend €23.5 billion on them annually) and when pet owners turned to mobile apps to maintain their pet’s health. This turned out to be a big driver of pet insurance companies such as ManyPets (UK) and Dalma (France). Lassie has now raised €23 million in a Series B funding led by Balderton Capital. Previous investors including Felix Capital, Inventure, Passion Capital and Philian (H&M Chair Karl-John Persson) also participated in the round. That means Lassie has now raised a total of €36.5 million. The funding will be used to develop Lassie’s team and products such as its in-app sale of health products for pets, and expand beyond its core bases of Germany and Sweden. The app features online courses, and other information on preventative health …

Wilko rescue failed because ‘everyone got a little bit greedy’, says HMV owner | Wilko

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The HMV owner Doug Putman has said his planned rescue of the retailer Wilko collapsed because “everyone just got a little bit greedy” and was not thinking about the jobs that could have been saved. The Canadian retail billionaire, who has engineered a turnaround of HMV in the UK and owns Toys R Us in Canada, was close to a deal to take over as many as 200 of Wilko’s 408 stores in September, which would have saved more than 12,000 jobs. Struggling under a debt pile of £625m, Wilko collapsed into administration in August and called in PricewaterhouseCoopers. Speaking on Tuesday, before former Wilko bosses will be grilled by MPs on the collapse of the chain, Putman said: “I thought we did have a deal, we thought we would get that over the line.” He said he would have needed to use Wilko’s IT systems for about four months before transitioning to a new system, and agreement could not be reached on the financial terms. “They were super inflexible,” he told BBC Radio 4’s …

Russia-Ukraine war live: ‘enemy attempts to storm Avdiivka from all directions’, says Ukrainian official | Ukraine

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Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature Ten people have died in snowstorms in Ukraine, the country’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, has said. Icy winds and storms have swept in since Sunday, cutting power and blocking roads, particularly in the south. “As a result of worsening weather conditions, 10 people died in Odesa, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv and Kyiv regions,” Klymenko wrote on Telegram. “Twenty-three people were injured, including two children,” he added. A total of 411 settlements in 11 regions had lost power, and more than 1,500 vehicles had to be rescued, Klymenko said. Summary It is Tuesday and this is the Guardian’s continuing live coverage of the Russian war against Ukraine. Here are the top developments. Russian forces are intensifying their drive to capture Avdiivka, trying to advance on all sides, according to Vitaliy Barabash, the head of Avdiivka’s military administration. “The Russians have opened up two more sectors from which they have begun making assaults – in the direction of Donetsk … and in the so-called industrial …

Augment provides an MBA-like program, but exclusively online

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French startup Augment has seen the incredible rise of online courses and edtech companies, as well as its potential when it comes to reinventing education at scale. That’s why the startup has been working on highly polished online courses sold as a package. Augment thinks its main program could potentially become an alternative to traditional Masters of Business Administration (MBA). Augment has recently raised a $6 million seed round led by RTP Global with other funds also participating, such as Motier Ventures, Origins Fund, Kima Ventures, Bpifrance and Financière Saint James. Several angel investors also invested in the startup, such as Thibaud Elziere and Roxanne Varza. The startup’s main program is called the Augment MBA. It is an opinionated and differentiated take on MBAs as everything happens online with a mix of videos from inspiring business leaders, case studies, quizzes, written assignments, downloadable handbooks, etc. I haven’t enrolled in Augment’s program so I can’t tell you if it’s an effective way to learn new business skills. A few months ago, the Augment team showed me …

Greed blamed for failure of Wilko rescue deal as MPs examine retailer’s collapse – business live | Business

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Introduction: “Everyone got a little bit greedy” as Wilko failed, claims Putman. Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy. Greed has been blamed for the failure to agree a rescue deal for Wilko, as MPs prepare to examine the collapse of the discount retailer this autumn. Doug Putman, the billionaire Canadian business executive, says he came very close to agreeing a deal that would have saved thousands of jobs, but was thwarted by the homeware chain’s suppliers. Putman told Radio 4’s Today Programme that he really thought he had a deal to take over Wilko, which closed its doors last month with the loss of around 12,000 jobs. But, he explains, companies – such as Wilko’s IT suppliers – refused to budge on fees they wanted to charge for the transition. Putman says these companies were “super inflexible” about cooperating for the “four months or so” that he would have needed their systems before transitioning to his own. Putman, who owns HMV, says: I thought …

Yes, Germany supports Israel – but not uncritically, and not for the reasons you think | Joerg Lau

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Who could have anticipated such a twist in Germany’s fraught relationship with its dark past? The German government is coming under increasing pressure to break free of the constraints of German guilt. And it is Turkey that wants the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, to deliver the reversal. On a visit to Germany earlier this month, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, standing next to Scholz in Berlin, claimed that Germany was too absorbed by historical remorse to grasp the reality of the Middle East. Before his arrival in Germany, Erdoğan had called the Hamas terrorists “freedom fighters” and said that Israel’s legitimacy was in doubt due to its “own fascism”. Scholz had staunchly resisted calls to cancel the visit, but made clear before Erdoğan’s arrival that he considered the president’s view of the conflict “absurd”. What followed was an awkward visit that highlighted how tricky the navigation of German foreign policy has become. Erdoğan is fully aware of his leverage in Berlin: almost 3 million people in Germany are of Turkish heritage. Ankara provides close to …