Bandana, a startup co-founded by CEO Timothy Makalinao, has secured $3.8 million in seed funding to develop a platform aimed at helping hourly wage workers find higher-paying jobs with benefits. The platform aims to connect job seekers with employers offering above-minimum-wage salaries, health insurance, paid time off, and locations close to their homes. The startup, which plans to focus on the New York City area initially, will keep its platform free for a year to attract users and plans to charge employers for job postings in the future. Bandana also intends to expand geographically and add features such as certifications and financial tools to aid workers in savings and money management. General Catalyst and Craft Ventures led the funding round.

The European Union (EU) has unveiled a list of tech giants that will be subjected to new regulations under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Dubbed “gatekeepers,” these companies, including Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, and Microsoft, are seen as having significant market power that requires proactive competition rules.

The DMA designates 22 core platform services operated by the six gatekeepers, encompassing social networks, online marketplaces, search engines, browsers, operating systems, and messaging services. The regulations curb anti-competitive behaviors, such as self-preferencing, controlling app stores, and stifling rivals’ services. Noncompliance penalties can range from 10% to 20% of global annual turnover. However, some tech giants, such as Microsoft and Apple, have faced challenges and objections over including certain services.

Meta Platforms announced that it will discontinue its social media app’s “Facebook News” feature in the UK, France, and Germany later this year. Despite this change, users can still view news articles through links, and European news publishers will maintain access to their Facebook accounts and pages. However, Meta will not enter into new commercial deals for news content or provide product innovations for news publishers in these countries. The decision comes as Meta faces increasing pressure to share a higher percentage of its advertising revenue with news publishers. In response to new laws in Canada and Australia, Meta has already begun blocking news on its Facebook and Instagram platforms.

Facebook parent company Meta has implemented a return-to-office mandate, requiring employees to work from physical office locations at least three days a week. The policy change will not affect Meta’s remote workers, but employees assigned to an office must comply with the rules starting this week. Meta stated that it believes distributed work will remain important in the future but wants to invest in a valuable in-person experience for those who work from the office.

This decision follows other tech giants, such as Amazon and Alphabet, reversing remote work policies and demanding a return to physical offices. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg previously stated that remote work can be successful at scale but hinted at updating the policy after an internal analysis showed in-person engineers performed better.

A Russian court has issued fines to Match Group, the operator of Tinder, and streaming service Twitch for failing to comply with local data localization laws. Match Group was fined 10 million roubles ($104,000), while Twitch received a fine of 13 million roubles ($135,000). Both companies have been accused of repeatedly failing to localize user data as Russian legislation requires.

Chinese technology giant Huawei Technologies has announced opening of a cloud data center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as part of its efforts to expand its online services in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This move will support government services for the kingdom and facilitate the development of AI applications and language models in Arabic. Huawei’s president for the region, Steven Yi, emphasized that establishing the cloud data center will benefit Huawei and serve as a gateway for other Chinese companies to enter Saudi Arabia.

The move aligns with Saudi Arabia’s strategy to encourage foreign companies to have regional headquarters in the kingdom. Huawei is currently the fifth-largest player in the global cloud services market. The company stated earlier this year that it plans to invest $400 million in the Saudi Arabia cloud region over the next five years.

European carmakers are facing fierce competition from Chinese automakers in developing and producing lower-cost electric vehicles (EVs), according to executives at the Munich Auto Show. Chinese EV makers, such as BYD, Nio, and Xpeng, are targeting Europe’s EV market, which saw a 55% increase in sales in the first seven months of 2023. European carmakers, including Renault, are striving to close the cost gap with their Chinese counterparts and achieve price parity. Chinese battery makers are also expanding in Europe, contributing to lower EV costs. Concerns are rising about Chinese dominance in the European EV market, prompting calls for increased investment in electrification from German industry leaders.

Small businesses that depend on summer tourism are finding extreme weather conditions to be the new determining factor in their success. While the pandemic brought its ups and downs for the tourism industry, businesses now face the challenge of coping with heatwaves, fires, and storms. This shift in weather patterns has positive and negative effects on businesses, with some regions benefiting from temperate weather while others suffer economic losses and disruptions. As extreme weather events become more frequent and intense, small businesses are increasingly concerned about the long-term impact of climate change on their operations.

The CEO of Mercedes-Benz, Ola Kaellenius, stated that the variable costs for producing electric vehicles will remain higher than those for combustion engine models for the foreseeable future. This, in turn, will continue to drive intense competition in the electric vehicle market. Kaellenius made these comments while revealing more details about the upcoming CLA compact electric sedan, which aims to offer 30% to 35% more driving range.

The higher variable costs for EV production are attributed to factors such as raw materials for batteries, software development, and electricity prices. Mercedes-Benz is working towards optimizing fixed costs and resource allocation to achieve the same profitability with electric cars as with combustion engines. The CLA will have a power use of 12 kilowatt hours per 100 kilometers and a driving range of 750 km. It is expected to reduce costs by approximately 50% compared to its previous generation. The batteries for the CLA will be supplied by CATL and ACC, of which Mercedes owns a third. The CLA will be available in hybrid and all-electric versions, with no diesel versions planned.