Welcome to Friday — we made it. I’m Winston Gieseke, philanthropy and special sections editor for The Desert Sun in Palm Springs, and I’m just about ready to start my weekend. But first, some headlines from this wonderful state of ours. In California brings you top Golden State stories and commentary from across the USA TODAY Network and beyond. Get it […]

There is bad news for Taylor Swift fans hoping to see the star in person. Swift shared on social media Friday that her anticipated Lover Fest world tour would be canceled and could not be rescheduled.  “I’m sorry, but I cannot reschedule the shows that we’ve postponed,” the “Love Story” singer wrote. “This is an unprecedented pandemic that has changed everyone’s plans and […]

The 2021 NASCAR season has gotten off to a surprising start with two first-time Cup Series winners in the first two races. Underdog Michael McDowell opened the season by winning the Daytona 500 after  escaping a big last-lap crash ignited by Brad Keselowski — making a move for the win — and his Penske teammate and late leader Joey Logano. […]

Viet Thanh Nguyen certainly knows how to debut well. His first novel, “The Sympathizer,” snapped up a host of literary awards in 2016, including the Pulitzer Prize. It was nominally a thriller, but what captured imaginations was its startling exploration of the post-war political entanglements of Vietnam and the United States, and how those entanglements played out in the psyche […]

Incumbent insurers have accelerated their use of mature AI deployments in the past year to meet changing customer expectations and better compete with insurtechs.  Insider Intelligence details AI use cases within the insurance industry, and explores potential risks to this tech, in our AI in Insurance Report. Do you work in the Fintech industry? Get business insights on the latest […]

Using financial technology, or fintech, to disrupt traditional models may seem “cool”, but Mastercard executive Joseph Tom believes it is as much about solving seemingly mundane problems. Fintech, he notes, has begun to improve access to remittance services for migrant workers, who otherwise could spend up to 10 per cent of their savings on transfer fees and poor exchange rates. […]

Businesses in need of urgent financial support are unable to apply for the government’s Covid-19 Resurgence Support Payment as IRD’s website is down “for maintenance”. Yesterday Finance Minister Grant Robertson’s advised that businesses in need of support were to apply for the payment via IRD’s MyIR login portal. However, the website appears to be down this weekend. A message on […]

OPINION: The trick to spin is to frame the question. “I think everyone would agree it was much better to have a 72-hour [lockdown] than make the wrong call and have 72 hours of a community outbreak,” said Jacinda Ardern recently. Governments start to die when they swallow their own spin. If the PM reframed the question to: “Everyone agrees […]