Author: Abhirami Priya

London: Revolut has grown from a fintech offering cheaper foreign exchange fees into Europe’s most valuable startup, reaching a private valuation of $115 billion and emerging as a growing challenger to established banking groups. Launched just over a decade ago, the London-based company has expanded rapidly and now has 80 million customers worldwide. Its valuation puts it above major European banks including Britain’s Barclays and France’s Societe Generale, although Revolut remains significantly smaller in some key areas of traditional banking. Revolut reported a 2025 pretax profit of £1.7 billion ($2.2 billion), compared with about £9 billion at Barclays. However, its…

Salt Lake City: Brazil’s Natalia Silva has become the new UFC women’s flyweight champion after defeating China’s Wang Cong by unanimous decision at UFC 332. Silva was originally scheduled to fight Kyrgyzstan’s Valentina Shevchenko for the title, but the bout was cancelled after Shevchenko was forced to relinquish the belt last month because of an injury. The Brazilian entered the fight as the favourite and extended her winning run to 15 bouts with a strong five-round performance against Wang in Salt Lake City. Gold suits her 🏆 @NataliaSilvaUFC leaves #UFC332 as the flyweight champion! https://t.co/eRAWQux8mB — UFC (@ufc) October 4,…

Pinterest has become a go-to destination for people looking for inspiration in everyday life. From decorating a bedroom and finding a new drawing idea to making a handmade gift or deciding what to cook, the platform offers visual suggestions for almost every interest. What makes Pinterest particularly useful is the way it turns a simple thought into something tangible. A search can lead to images, tutorials, designs, and creative possibilities that users can save, organise and return to when they are ready to try them. A digital space for ideas From room décor and DIY crafts to sketching, photography, gardening,…

British farmers are facing the worst bluetongue outbreak on record, with reported cases in the current season already exceeding the combined total of the previous three seasons. Bluetongue is a viral disease that primarily affects sheep and cattle, as well as other ruminants. Symptoms can include fever, ulcers, swelling of the head, and lameness. In some cases, an infected animal’s tongue can turn blue and protrude from its mouth, while severe infections can be fatal. The virus is transmitted by biting midges and originated in Africa before spreading across Europe over the past two decades. The World Organisation for Animal…

New Delhi: Indian pilot Smit Machchhar has been praised by Indian and Israeli leaders after he helped prevent a flydubai aircraft bound for Israel from crashing following an alleged mid-air attack by his co-pilot. Machchhar, who is recovering at a hospital in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, was reportedly stabbed by the co-pilot on Wednesday in an attempt to crash the aircraft carrying 174 people, according to Israeli officials. Despite being seriously injured, the captain managed to activate the mechanism that opened the cockpit door. This allowed passengers and crew members to overpower the co-pilot, while two flydubai pilots travelling as passengers…

Ho Chi Minh City: Danish jewellery maker Pandora has opened a $150 million factory in Ho Chi Minh City, its largest manufacturing facility and its first production site outside Thailand, as the company moves to diversify its manufacturing footprint and strengthen supply-chain resilience. The Vietnam facility is Pandora’s fourth factory worldwide and is expected to increase the company’s overall manufacturing capacity by around 50 percent. It is projected to employ 7,000 workers when fully operational. Pandora sold 112 million pieces of jewellery in 2025 and has so far manufactured all its products in Thailand, where it operates three factories. At…

Singapore: Singapore has launched FirstDate, a matchmaking service for government employees aged 21 to 35, as the city-state faces a historically low birth rate. The pilot programme uses a mathematical matching system to pair participants based on their preferences and allows them to meet one potential match at a time. Participants access the service through Singapore’s national digital identity system and complete a survey covering their interests, habits and values. FirstDate describes its approach as different from conventional dating platforms, with the programme designed to avoid the repeated swiping associated with many dating apps. FirstDate uses the Gale-Shapley Stable Marriage…

London: The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned an advert for meal replacement brand Huel featuring former Made in Chelsea star Spencer Matthews after ruling that it encouraged or condoned irresponsible dietary practices. The advert appeared as a sponsored Instagram post and a YouTube pre-roll advertisement in April and May. Presented in a podcast-style format, it featured Matthews speaking with Huel founder Julian Hearn about the use of Huel products as part of a diet. The ASA received four complaints about the advert. The complaints challenged whether the advertisement was irresponsible and whether its health-related claims complied with advertising…

London: A six-month trial of live facial recognition (LFR) technology at London railway stations cost more than £320,000, scanned more than 500,000 faces and produced only one alert against a police watchlist, which turned out to be a false match. The British Transport Police (BTP) conducted the trial between February and July across 18 deployments at some of the capital’s busiest transport hubs. The technology was tested as a way of identifying wanted offenders and people breaching court orders. Freedom of information data obtained by Liberty Investigates and shared with the Guardian showed that equipment hire and police staffing for…

Croatia: Tesla has stated that Croatia has approved its supervised Full Self-Driving (FSD) system, with a nationwide rollout expected to begin soon. Croatia joins a growing group of European countries that have approved the technology. The Netherlands was the first to grant provisional type approval through its vehicle authority, RDW, in April 2026, with several other EU countries subsequently using that approval as a regulatory basis for their own decisions. The approval timeline shows the expansion gathering pace: Netherlands: April 2026 Lithuania: May 2026 Estonia: May 2026 Denmark: June 2026 Belgium: June 2026 Slovenia: September 2026 Czechia: September 2026 Croatia:…