Mission Everywhere

A Beijing coffee shop displays a sign for China's digital yuan, or E-CNY. VCG/VCG via Getty Images Two Chinese state-run banks are looking to expand usage of China's experimental digital yuan. China Construction Bank is working on allowing e-yuan holders to make online fund investments. Trials of China's CBDC logged $5.3 billion of transactions as of June. See more stories on Insider's business page . To expand usage of China's experimental digital currency, two state-run banks are looking into allowing customers to use the asset to buy investment funds and insurance products, according to a South China Morning Post report . The move, if successful, could stretch the usage of the e-yuan outside of low value, daily retail payments outlined by the People's Bank of China when it started working on the digital currency project in 2014, the report published on Tuesday said. China Construction Bank , among the Big Four group of Chinese lenders, told the ne...

Gary Kelly is the CEO of Southwest Airlines PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images Southwest pilots are suing the airline for failing to bargain with the union during the pandemic. The suit claims Southwest put some pilots into mandatory quarantine without pay. Southwest said in a statement to Insider the company disagrees with SWAPA's claims. See more stories on Insider's business page . Southwest Airlines pilots are suing the company for failing to bargain with the union before making changes to pay and work conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Southwest Airlines Pilot Association claims the company violated the union contract by implementing an "emergency extended time off" policy, which gave pilots the option to take time off without pay during the pandemic. The SWAPA said Southwest did not have the ability to withhold pay without first bargaining with the union. The union added Southwest began directing some pilots into mandatory quarantine w...

Then-Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Wis., listens to President Donald Trump speak during a meeting with Republican lawmakers in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington. AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File Former Speaker Paul Ryan said Trump lost the 2020 election as Wisconsin GOP leaders investigate the results. Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos is pursuing an open-ended investigation and audit of 2020. "He exhausted his cases. He exhausted the court challenges," Ryan said of Trump's election loss. See more stories on Insider's business page . Former House Speaker Paul Ryan reiterated this week that it's "clear" former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election while GOP leaders in Wisconsin, a state he represented in Congress for 20 years, pursue an investigation and audit of the results. "It was not rigged. It was not stolen. Donald Trump lost the election. Joe Biden won the election. It's really clear," Ryan told Wi...

One of Hollywood’s biggest talent agencies is getting into the NFT game. Larva Labs, the creator of CryptoPunks , just signed with United Talent Agency (UTA) in a representation deal that will bring one of the earliest and most iconic NFT projects into the entertainment and branding worlds. “I would say that it is one of the first opportunities for an IP that fully originated in crypto-world to enter a broader entertainment space, and they earned it,” head of UTA Digital Assets Lesley Silverman told The Hollywood Reporter . “They really have hit the zeitgeist in a tremendous way.” The deal could see CryptoPunks popping up across film, TV, video games and other licensing areas. Larva Labs’ other art projects, Meebits and Autoglyphs, will also be represented by UTA moving forward. The terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. As speculative investment in NFTs explodes, CryptoPunks remain one of the most recognizable — and valuable — pioneers in the space. Larva Labs launched 10,000 of the...

What do LinkedIn and Twitter have in common? They both introduced ephemeral story features that were pretty fleeting . LinkedIn announced today that it will suspend its Stories feature on September 30 and begin working on a different way to add short-form videos to the platform. LinkedIn announced the upcoming change to warn advertisers who might have already purchased ads that would run in between Stories. Those will instead be shared on the LinkedIn feed, but users who promoted or sponsored Stores directly from their page will need to remake them. This sucks. I met my wife on LinkedIn Stories https://t.co/rMeA6gpYWI — Casey Newton (@CaseyNewton) August 31, 2021 LinkedIn introduced Stories in September, around the same time that Twitter rolled out Fleets to all users before doing away with the feature. This was part of a larger web and mobile redesign, which also added integrations with Zoom, BlueJeans and Teams to help professionals stay connected while working from ho...

Can reading glasses actually be cool? A new eyewear company called Cheeterz Club thinks so. The startup is working to change the perception of reading glasses from being just cheap, disposable items you pick up from a rotating display rack at your local drug store to being something you’d actually be proud to wear. To do so, the company is designing its glasses with quality lenses and frames in range of styles, while still keeping the pricing affordable. The startup — whose name is a reference to the slang term for glasses, “cheaters,” — was founded by Jennifer Farrelly , whose background includes work in advertising and sales at companies like Uber and Virool. She said the idea to make a better set of readers came to her because she found herself frustrated by the current options on the market. “It all started a few years ago. My friends were posting on social media these really depressing comments and posts like: ‘I’m old and turning into my parents, this is awful.’ And I [though...

Zoë Schiffer / @zoeschiffer : [Thread] Apple bars staff from making a Slack channel about pay equity; Apple says it's because it's not work related, despite other channels on pets and jokes   —  NEW: Apple employees were just barred from creating a Slack channel to discuss pay equity. Here's what Apple HR had to say about it: 1/ from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3yBNrzc

Wall Street Journal : Wall Street institutions are increasingly tracking amateurs on Reddit, Twitter, and Discord to find trading opportunities, following GameStop's meteoric rise   —  Deep-pocketed banks and hedge funds now take their cues from armies of Main Street traders  —  Wall Street professionals tell everyday investors what stocks to buy. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3gOUVIZ

Ellume's home test kit includes an app to walk users through the process. Ellume At-home coronavirus tests are in high demand amidst the Delta surge. Most home kits are rapid antigen tests, which are quick and cheap but not as sensitive as PCR. PCR testing is the current "gold standard," which you can get delivered but it usually takes place in a lab. See more stories on Insider's business page . It might be time to stock up on home coronavirus tests again - if you can find them. As coronavirus cases surged in recent weeks, Google searches for "home coronavirus test" also spiked. People seeking tests have found drugstore shelves empty and Amazon inventory sold out . Even if demand for testing is climbing to early pandemic levels, at least the technology for testing at home has improved since 2020. Now, it's possible to get a variety of tests online or at the drugstore . Some tests return results in as little as 15 minutes . Here's how t...

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf elbow bumps LPN Monique Bourgeois at the Berks County Intermediate Unit in Muhlenberg township on morning March 15, 2021. Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images In early August, Gov. Tom Wolf said he would let school districts decide on mask requirements. But Pennsylvania has seen a 63% spike in new COVID-19 cases over the last two weeks. See more stories on Insider's business page . Pennsylvania is imposing a statewide requirement that public school students and staff wear masks as they return to the classroom, Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, announced at a press conference on Tuesday. "As everybody knows, we're not where we were two months ago. The aggressive Delta variant has changed everything for us," Wolf said. Pennsylvania has not been as hard hit by the Delta variant as states in the southwest. But Wolf cited their experience - of hospitals running out of space to treat children; of students forced to quarant...