Christine Hall@christinemhall /
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Every day at 3 p.m., you'll get a rundown of the biggest and most important stories from the site. Don't forget to subscribe here.

It's happy wednesday! Haje is taking a well-deserved day off, but I'm here to tell you some news. We should join hands and jump in together.

The TechCrunch Top 3

  • Cloudy day: Google’s first cloud region in Africa launched in South Africa. Annie and Tage write that this move “allows for the localization of applications and services” and for businesses to more quickly deploy capabilities — for example, artificial intelligence, machine learning and data analytics.
  • Duck, duck, goose: French food tech startup Gourmey took in $48 million of new funding to cook up its slaughter-free and lab-grown foie gras. Romain has more.
  • Show a little more, show a little less: Facebook is testing out a new feature with Reels to let users say how much or how little they want to see of certain things in their feed, Aisha reports.

Startups and VC

I enjoyed Paul's story about the company that took in a $3 million seed round to develop a product that would make it easier for workers to report corporate wrongdoings.

You can enjoy five more.

Dear Sophie: Any tips for negotiating visa and green card sponsorship?

lone figure at entrance to maze hedge that has an American flag at the center

The image is from TechCrunch.

I would like to ask you a question, DearSophie.

I have a student visa. I will get my bachelor's degree in computer science in December. I would love to work in the U.S.

How do you negotiate visa and green card sponsorship? As I begin contacting potential employers, what should I remember?

A student.

Dear Sophie: Any tips for negotiating visa and green card sponsorship?

There are three more people from the team.

The membership program helps startup teams get ahead of the game. This is where you can sign up. You can get a 15% discount on an annual subscription.

Big Tech Inc.

CommonSpirit Health took some of its information technology systems offline due to a cyber incident. It's not known what happened or what personal information was taken in the process.

Five more for you.

  • How we doing?: It’s been one year since Google’s $1 billion pledge of support to Africa’s digital economy, and Tage and Annie do a little performance review.
  • M&A action: Spotify acquires Kinzen, a content moderation tech company, in a move that Sarah writes will address platform safety issues.
  • We take your sale and raise you one: Walmart is not letting Amazon’s Prime Early Access Sale get the best of it and is countering with its own sale, Aisha reports.
  • This is only the beginning: Just as Elon Musk announced he was moving forward with the Twitter deal, a judge was granting the social media giant time to do some digging. A lot of twists and turns indeed, as Taylor put it. Also, Alex weighs in on how expensive Elon’s Twitter buy is.
  • Fight, for your right, to partAI: The White House is proposing an AI Bill of Rights, which “mandates that AI systems be proven safe and effective through testing and consultation with stakeholders, in addition to continuous monitoring of the systems in production,” Kyle writes.
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