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The long-awaited New York listing of Stockholm-based buy now, pay later (BNPL) giant Klarna on Wednesday has once again shone a spotlight on the installment plans which have ballooned in popularity among U.S. shoppers in recent years.BNPL exploded as the COVID-19 pandemic forced more shoppers online, driving $82.4 billion in online spending in 2024, up 9.9 per cent from 2023, according to Adobe Analytics.Klarna and other BNPL providers like Affirm boost shoppers’ purchasing power by lending them the money upon checkout, which they repay in installments spread over as many as 36 months, although the most common products are four-installment…

PARIS — Protesters blocked roads, set blazes and were met with volleys of police tear gas on Wednesday in Paris and elsewhere in France, seeking to heap pressure on President Emmanuel Macron by attempting to give his new prime minister a baptism of fire. The interior minister announced nearly 200 arrests in the first hours of the planned day of nationwide demonstrations. Although falling short of its self-declared intention to “Block Everything,” the protest movement that started online over the summer caused widespread hot spots of disruption, defying an exceptional deployment of 80,000 police who broke up barricades and swiftly…

When Microsoft developers come to speak of their long-term work, they keep revealing exciting curiosities. So Dave Plummer now reported a bug in the pinball game that led to enormous frame rates.Image rate grew with CPU performanceAnyone who owned a Windows PC in the late 1990s probably remembers the supplied pinball game “3D Pinball: Space Cadet”. In this there was a curious programming mistake that remained undetected for years. Former Microsoft engineer Dave Plummer, known as one of the fathers of the Windows Task Manager, now explained on his YouTube channel “Dave’s Attic” why “3D Pinball” ran so amazingly liquid…

Sam Fender is among the artists in the running for this year’s Mercury Prize as the ceremony heads to his home city – with Pulp also shortlisted for their big comeback, and Wolf Alice breaking a record.Other acts announced by judges today include the genre-bending FKA Twigs, indie-pop star CMAT and post-punk band Fontaines DC, who are all up for the award for the second time. Folk musician Martin Carthy is now believed to be the oldest ever nominee at 84 – and joins his daughter, Eliza Carthy, and late wife Norma Waterson, on the list of Mercury Prize shortlist…

Celebrity-endorsed calories are reshaping culture, influence, and eating habits. Are we gaining weight as a result? It started with a Sprite, some BBQ sauce, and a Quarter Pounder. In 2020, Travis Scott’s “Cactus Jack Meal” at McDonald’s didn’t just trend, it disrupted. Stores ran out of ingredients, and lines wrapped around the block. Forbes reported that the collaboration earned Scott an estimated $20 million, with most of the revenue coming from merchandise sales alone. Just like that, fast food became more than feeding hunger. McDonald’s New Formula That launch opened the door to something bigger. Over the next few years,…

Peter Mandelson has said he “regrets very deeply” continuing his association with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein “far longer than I should have” as their relationship comes under renewed scrutiny.Lord Mandelson, the UK ambassador to the US, faced questions on Tuesday after it emerged he had referred to Epstein as his “best pal” in a birthday message he wrote for the convicted sex offender in 2003.In an interview with The Sun, the diplomat said he regrets “very much that I fell for his lies… and accepted assurances he had given me about his indictment”, which saw him jailed in 2008. Image:…

Apple Watch’s new high blood pressure hypertension detection alerts feature is compatible with older models as well. Here’s what you need to know. As you may already know by now, Apple today announced Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch Ultra 3. Both of these watches come with a new health feature that can alert users of hypertension. If you thought you would have to buy the new model just to gain access to this feature, well fear not as Apple has today confirmed that the following models will also get this feature as part of watchOS 26 update. Apple…

TL;DR: Get Microsoft Office Professional 2021 and Windows 11 Pro together for just $44.97 (MSRP: $418.99) through Sept. 14. If you’ve been putting off upgrading your PC, this bundle makes the decision easier than ever. For just $44.97, you can lock in a lifetime license to Microsoft Office Professional 2021 and Microsoft Windows 11 Pro — two tools that can completely change how your computer performs. Office Pro 2021 includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, OneNote, Publisher, and Access, all redesigned with modern features to help you create documents, crunch data, or put together presentations more efficiently. No subscription fees, no renewals. Pair that…

HONG KONG: Asian markets extended gains on Wednesday (Sep 10), with Tokyo and Seoul emulating a record day on Wall Street as fresh data pointing to a weakening United States jobs market ramped up expectations for a series of Federal Reserve rate cuts.Eyes are now on the release of inflation figures that could help guide the US central bank’s decision-making for the rest of the year.Figures on Tuesday showed that the Bureau of Labor Statistics had revised down the number of new jobs in the 12 months through March by a record 911,000, suggesting the economy was slowing quicker than…

The country’s new finance minister is more recognised as a macroeconomist than a fiscal hawk[JAKARTA] As the dust settles on a tumultuous two weeks, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has undertaken his first Cabinet reshuffle to restore public trust and investor confidence, appointing veteran economist Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa as his new finance minister.In a move that surprised foreign investors but was relatively widely expected in Jakarta circles, Dr Purbaya replaces Dr Sri Mulyani Indrawati, one of Indonesia’s longest-serving and most trusted policymakers. His appointment marks both continuity and uncertainty for South-east Asia’s largest economy, which is grappling with social unrest, surging…