The European fintech firm worth $5.5B, Titanic’s shipyard is sinking, and more top news

The news professionals in Europe are talking about now, curated by LinkedIn’s editors. Join the conversation on today's stories in the comments. 

With a $5.5 billion valuation, Klarna has become Europe’s most valuable fintech firm. The Swedish payments company raised $460 million in equities from investors led by Dragoneer, as well as BlackRock and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, which it says it will use to further its push into the US. The Snoop Dogg-backed “buy now, pay later” disruptor is Sweden’s latest tech success: Outside of Silicon Valley, Stockholm has produced more billion-dollar “unicorns” than anywhere else. ? Here’s what people are saying.

The Belfast shipyard that built the Titanic has filed for insolvency. Harland and Wolff was put into administration on Monday after bankrupt Norwegian owner Dolphin Drilling was unable to find a buyer. Workers at the historic site, which was founded in 1861 and employed more than 30,000 people at its post-war peak, locked themselves in the yard last week to protest potential job losses. The company currently employs just 130 full-time workers after a half-century decline. ? Here’s what people are saying.

McDonald’s has lost a second trademark battle in Europe — this time over its “Mc”. The European Union Intellectual Property Office ruled that the US fast-food giant could not prove a genuine use of the “Mc” prefix on some of the products it had trademarked, though it will continue to own the trademark on chicken nuggets and its sandwiches. The ruling comes after a challenge from Irish fast-food chain Supermac’s, which won an earlier dispute over the similarity between the name Supermac’s and Big Mac. ? Here’s what people are saying.

The hottest new hires in AI are those with autism, according to The Wall Street Journal. Companies including Ernst & Young, Credit Suisse and Dell Technologies are utilising some of these workers' ability to focus, analyse and recognise patterns — “enabling them to systematically develop and test" artificial intelligence models — at a time when the IT jobless rate is less than half the unemployment rate. Of the 80 employees hired at through EY's neurodiversity program, many had been working as janitors, drivers or in delivery. ? Here’s what people are saying.

Meetings in the workplace can often feel like a drag. Communication and leadership experts tell CNN Business how to make meetings more productive and less of a time-suck. For starters, be thoughtful about who attends. Only invite those to whom the subject matters. Define the agenda and make sure participants know it's going in. Try to encourage input from everyone who attends. If you're hosting the meeting, be mindful of how much you're hogging the mic, so to speak. And don't forget a call to action. ? Here’s what people are saying.

Idea of the Day: Create the right work culture where people are aware of the impact of their words and actions, advises Shell CEO Ben van Beurden.

“Even small conversations that are biased — consciously or unconsciously — can undermine people's confidence and cut short careers.”

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—  Capucine Yeomans