Techmeme: Sources: Full Truck Alliance, a Chinese Uber-like service for trucks, raises $1.6B after pricing at $19, the top of the range; trading begins today on NYSE (Julia Fioretti/Bloomberg)

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June 21, 2021, 8:30 AM

Top News

Global Times:

China's Sichuan Province closes crypto mines, following Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, and Yunnan; an estimated 90% of China's mining capacity has now been shut down — Many Bitcoin mines in Southwest China's Sichuan Province - one of China's largest cryptocurrency mining bases - were closed as of Sunday …

More: The Block, CoinDesk, Bloomberg, Reuters, Gizmodo, Forbes, Bloomberg, Decrypt, France 24, Reuters, New York Post, blockchain.news, Bloomberg, Cryptonews, Blockonomi, CNBC, Pandaily, and CoinDesk. Tweets: @thestalwart

Coco Feng / South China Morning Post:

As China expands its crackdown on cryptocurrency mining farms, analysis shows the price of GPUs has fallen on many e-commerce platforms in the country — Graphics cards from companies including Nvidia and Asus saw prices fall by as much as two-thirds on e-commerce platforms amid China's …

More: The Economic Times, Finbold, CoinDesk, Coinspeaker, and blockchain.news

Sami Fathi / MacRumors:

Germany's Federal Cartel Office announces an antitrust investigation into Apple's App Store, pre-installed apps, and more — Germany's Federal Cartel Office, the Bundeskartellamt, today initiated proceedings against Apple on the claims of anti-competitive behavior related to the App Store …

More: Bundeskartellamt, 9to5Mac, TechCrunch, Bloomberg, AppleInsider, Reuters, iDownloadBlog.com, and iMore

Tweets: @kartellamt, @markscott82, and @markscott82

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Facebook rolls out Live Audio Rooms, available to verified public figures and select Groups, and its podcast service, available to select partners, in the US — In April, Facebook announced a series of planned investments in new audio products, including a Clubhouse live audio competitor as well as new support for podcasts.

More: The Verge, About Facebook, AppleInsider, CNET, Engadget, and Variety. Tweets: @alexvoica

See also Mediagazer

Sam Shead / CNBC:

Google says it has decided not to reopen Campus, its London-based startup space, after the pandemic forced it to close — - The Silicon Valley tech giant announced on Monday that it has decided “not to reopen” Campus in East London after it was forced to close by the coronavirus pandemic.

More: campus.co, Insider, Medium, and TechRadar

Tweets: @googlestartupuk, @nicklevine, @ruskin147, @mikebutcher, @googlestartupuk, @jamesliamcook, @sarahdrinkwater, @googlestartupuk, @googlestartupuk, and @sarahdrinkwater

Douglas Busvine / Reuters:

Forto, a freight forwarding service that gives customers real-time data, raises $240M led by SoftBank's Vision Fund 2 at a $1.2B valuation — Forto has raised $240 million from investors led by Softbank (9984.T), the freight technology startup said on Monday, and will invest in expanding …

More: Tech.eu, Silicon Canals, and PR Newswire

Rita Liao / TechCrunch:

Amber Group, a Hong Kong-based crypto finance startup that provides trading and asset management services, raises $100M Series B at $1B pre-money valuation — More mainstream venture capital firms are jumping on the crypto bandwagon as investors increasingly consider bitcoin an investable asset …

More: CNBC, Silicon Republic, Bloomberg, Decrypt, CoinDesk, Coinspeaker, TNW, Forkast, and Cointelegraph. Tweets: @_annabellehuang

Romain Dillet / TechCrunch:

Revolut says it had $361M in 2020 revenue, up 57% YoY, non-adjusted operating loss reached $277M due to staff costs, and retail customers rose 45% to 14.5M — Fintech startup Revolut has filed some financial results and is sharing details with the press. In 2020, the company reported $361 million …

More: The Guardian, Sifted, Finextra, Bloomberg, CNBC, Insider, and Revolut

Sam Shead / CNBC:

A look at Founders Forum, the annual UK event branded as the “Davos of tech” attended by Europe's top CEOs and investors from technology and media — - Attendees of the annual Founders Forum event included the former U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, ex-Finance Minister George Osborne …

More: Beyond Search

Sarah Frier / Bloomberg:

Real estate mogul Frank McCourt says he plans to invest $100M to build a blockchain-based database of social connections, sidestepping the dominant social apps — Frank McCourt wants to build a blockchain-based alternative to Facebook — Frank McCourt, the billionaire real estate mogul …

More: Decrypt, PR Newswire, Coin Journal, Cointelegraph, CoinDesk, South China Morning Post, and Slashdot

Richard Pallot / ITV:

Investigation finds Amazon has been destroying thousands of unsold goods at its UK-based Dunfermline warehouse; source says 130K items are destroyed per week — Exclusive: Watch footage showing the ‘destruction zone’ in Amazon's Dunfermline warehouse where millions of unsold items are destroyed every year

More: ITV. Tweets: @itvnews, @olifranklin, @janeygodley, @misszing, @alexhern, @itvnews, @sam_l_shead, @itvnews, @itvnews, and @anneapplebaum

Matt Dougherty / KHOU-TV:

Some power companies in Texas are remotely adjusting the smart thermostats of users enrolled in their energy saving programs to reduce strain on power grids — Some said they didn't know their thermostats were being accessed from afar until it was almost 80 degrees inside their homes.

More: Protocol, BGR, Android Police, The Verge, Insider, AppleInsider, Gizmodo, USA Today, and Click2Houston.com

Tweets: @dellcam, @arvindpawan1, @elpasotimes, @erratarob, @apoorv_bh89, @stealthygeek, @vickerysec, @film_girl, @grantstern, @nuclear94, @jgamblin, @mollyjongfast, @natebeachw, @phil_lewis_, and @karlbode

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From Mediagazer

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

Major brands were replaced by direct-response advertisers during commercial breaks of CBS News' December 13 town hall with Erika Kirk, moderated by Bari Weiss

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:

Arkansas PBS severs ties with the PBS network, the first state public TV system to do so since Congress cut CPB funds, citing the annual $2M+ membership cost

Pamela McClintock / The Hollywood Reporter:

Disney's Zootopia 2 surpasses $1B at the global box office, the fastest PG-rated film to do so after just 17 days in release

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More News

Julia Fioretti / Bloomberg:

Sources: Full Truck Alliance, a Chinese Uber-like service for trucks, raises $1.6B after pricing at $19, the top of the range; trading begins today on NYSE

More: Reuters

Stephanie Findlay / Financial Times:

Sources: Indian payments company Paytm is seeking to raise up to $3B in its forthcoming IPO, targeting a valuation of $29B; the company was last valued at $16B

Ax Sharma / BleepingComputer:

Researcher finds iPhone bug that disables wireless functionality after joining a WiFi network called “%p%s%s%s%s%n”; resetting network settings fixes the issue

More: CodeColorist, androidauthority.com, Gizchina, 9to5Mac, Gizmodo, Ubergizmo, BGR India, Pocketnow, The Hacker News, SlashGear, iThinkDifferent, phonearena.com, HotHardware.com News, MacRumors, PCMag, BetaNews, ZDNet, Forbes, Wccftech, and Livemint

Tweets: @vm_call, @kennwhite, @insane_irish, @vm_call, @gossithedog, @securestep9, and @gossithedog

Alan Suderman / Associated Press:

Tax experts say that ransomware victims' ransom payments are probably tax deductible in the US, unless they were paid by an insurance company

More: TechRadar. Tweets: @thegrugq, @mikko, @gossithedog, @sosowski, @xamat, and @thegrugq

Brian Heater / TechCrunch:

Wristcam, which makes a $299 Apple Watch band with a camera capable of taking 4K images and recording 1080p video, raises $25M led by Marker LLC

Tweets: @brianfagioli and @daniel_duan. Thanks:@vscpr

Dr. Ian Cutress / AnandTech:

Interview with Jim Keller, a chip expert lauded for his work at AMD and Apple, on ARM vs x86 vs RISC-V, managing 1,000 people at Intel, and plans at Tenstorrent

Tweets: @iancutress, @anandtech, @0xcats, and @hkanji. Thanks:@anandtech

Earlier Picks

Wall Street Journal:

Analysts say the dominance of TSMC, which makes ~92% of the world's most sophisticated chips and 60% of chips used in cars, poses risks to the global economy

More: Wall Street Journal and phonearena.com

Tweets: @jasonmillerindc, @zackkanter, @djtgallagher, @jchengwsj, @scottlincicome, and @chinarealtime

Ezra Fieser / Bloomberg:

A look at El Zonte, a surfing village in El Salvador dubbed Bitcoin Beach after an anonymous 2019 donation turned it into a controlled alt-currency experiment

Tweets: @andrewrosati, @codinghorror, @apompliano, and @kejalvyas

Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal:

Pandemic boosted the “phone-ization” of PCs, which are adopting power efficient CPUs and thin designs, a trend which will accelerate with broader adoption of 5G

More: The Overspill. Tweets: @gregorymbryant, @psb_dc, @dsilverman, @parthodasgupta, @onelinders, @stevesi, @mims, and @mims

Kristen Sinclair / The Verge:

A look at some Twitch streamers using the service to showcase minority languages like Galician, Welsh, Basque, and te reo Māori

More: Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Tweets: @biliteracyseal, @unaminhkavanagh, @3000twitz, @zacharydiaz, and @xipiryon

Betsy Ladyzhets / MIT Technology Review:

An analysis of the usage of COVID-19 contact tracing apps in 25 US states and DC finds that only 13 have enough usage to benefit from exposure notification

More: 9to5Google, PCMag, and Android Police

Tweets: @matthew_d_green, @malwarejake, @techreview, @pathcheck_fnd, @charlesmok, @techreview, @jennydove, @fabiochiusi, @techreview, and @techreview