Isobel Asher Hamilton

isobel@thedailyupside.com

Isobel Asher Hamilton (she/her) is a senior reporter at The Daily Upside. Previously she worked at Business Insider and Mashable. She specializes in covering Big Tech, social media, and AI. Isobel is based in London.

Healthcare

Moderna Takes $1.3 Billion Hit From Sluggish Covid Vaccine Uptake

Photo by Ian Hutchinson via Unsplash

Moderna posted a quarterly loss of $3.63 billion, half of which was accounted for by unused Covid-19 shots past their expiration date.

2 min read
Industrials

Sugar Shortages Loom as Supply Gets Sticky

(Photo by Mathilde Langevin on Unsplash)

Logistical holdups at ports in Brazil combined with poor sugar crops in other major sugar-producing nations is stretching supply of the crop.

1 min read
Real Estate

Washington DC Sues Landlords, RealPage in Alleged Rent-Fixing Scheme

(Photo by Chuttersnap on Unsplash)

Washington, DC’s Attorney General filed a lawsuit against property management software maker RealPage, along with 14 commercial landlords.

2 min read
Artificial Intelligence

Microsoft’s AI News Poll Ticks Off UK Newspaper

(Photo by Connor Lin/The Daily Upside)

The Guardian submitted a complaint to Microsoft on Tuesday after a grotesquely inappropriate AI-generated poll next to a Guardian article.

2 min read
Banking

Goldman Sachs Gets Into the Geopolitical Advice Game

(Photo by Ken Lund under CC BY-SA 2.0)

Goldman Sachs is launching a sort of geopolitics-slash-technology research arm to advise clients who get anxious when they turn the news on.

1 min read
Technology

Amazon Spins Up New Cloud Division for Europe

(Photo by Web Summit under CC BY 2.0)

Amazon said Wednesday that its Amazon Web Services cloud division is launching a “European Sovereign Cloud.”

1 min read
Banking

UK Abolishes Cap on Bankers’ Bonuses

(Photo by Christopher Bill on Unsplash)

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority said Tuesday that it’s ending a cap on bonuses for bankers that’s been in place since 2014.

1 min read
Regulation

Japan Warms Up to Ride-Hailing

(Photo by Derch on Unsplash)

Japan’s strict taxi rules have historically made it impossible for ride-hailing companies like Uber to crack the Land of the Rising Sun.

2 min read
Policy & Power

Mexico Reviving Transcoastal Railway to Capitalize on Dry Panama Canal

(Photo by Gift Habeshaw on Unsplash)

The renovated line would span Mexico’s two coasts, providing a new artery through which international freight can flow.

1 min read
Social Media

Twitter Seeks Out Political Advertisers

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Twitter (or X, pick your poison) is aggressively courting political ads on its platform.

2 min read
Big Tech

Amazon’s Prime Day Isn’t About Sales Anymore

(Photo by Erik Mclean on Pexels)

Amazon’s October Prime sales event wrapped up Tuesday, and this year saw a massive shift in consumer behavior.

1 min read
Policy & Power

The War on Junk Fees Just Got Wider

(Photo by RDNE Stock project on Pexels)

The FTC made a big splash on Wednesday with an announcement that it’s planning new rules to stamp out “junk fees.”

1 min read
Geopolitics

China’s Subsidies Draw More International Wrath

(Photo by Yasin Hemmati on Unsplash)

The EU plans to launch an antitrust probe into China’s domestic subsidies for steelmakers, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.

1 min read
Artificial Intelligence

Google Launches Search Engine for Medical Records

(Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash)

Google’s cloud division says it’s launching a new AI-powered tool designed to rifle through and compile patients’ medical records.

1 min read
Autos

UAW Notches Win for EV Battery Workers with GM

The United Auto Workers announced on Friday that it had called off a planned walkout at a General Motors plant in Arlington, Texas.

2 min read
Social Media

Twitter’s Latest Ad Problem: Users Flagging Them for Misinformation

Twitter designed the community notes feature for users to add context to possible misleading tweets. Now it’s a liability for advertisers.

2 min read
Regulation

UK Sets Up Framework to Eventually Ban Cigarettes for All

(Photo by Lex Guerra on Unsplash)

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced on Wednesday that he plans to raise the legal smoking age by one year every year.

1 min read
Big Tech

Meta Plans an Ad-Free Subscription Service in the EU

(Photo by Souvik Banerjee on Unsplash)

Meta is rolling out subscription versions of Instagram and Facebook in Europe that won’t feature targeted ads.

2 min read
Industrials

The Next Great Sea Battle

Photo by ROV-Team/GEOMAR via CC BY 4.0

An intense geopolitical fight is raging at the moment, and the future of deep sea mining does hang in the balance.

5 min read
Electric Vehicles

Tesla Gets Caught In EU-China Crossfire

(Photo by Charlie Deets on Unsplash)

The EU’s antitrust investigation claims that China is artificially flooding the market with cheap EVs via enormous state subsidies.

2 min read