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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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:30 AM ET, June 21, 2021.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

From Mediagazer

Sara Fischer / Axios:

60 Minutes' CECOT segment, pulled by Bari Weiss, was mistakenly aired in Canada via an app owned by Global Television, which airs 60 Minutes in the country

Ali Watkins / New York Times:

Channel 4 says Jimmy Kimmel will share a message on Christmas Day as part of its Alternative Christmas Message show, emphasizing the importance of free speech

Reuters:

Israel's cabinet votes to shut down popular national radio station Army Radio, saying it has become a platform for views that “attack” its armed forces

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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