Town Hall News

By Lewis Krauskopf NEW YORK (Reuters) – Recent advances in artificial intelligence are fueling optimism over how businesses can operate more productively in the years ahead. They are also providing a big boost to the stock market. The S&P 500’s 9% rally this year has been driven by a handful of the index’s biggest stocks, a number of which are at the center of the AI frenzy that has spread […]

By Zeba Siddiqui SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A U.S. court found that the FBI improperly searched for information in a U.S. database of foreign intelligence 278,000 times over several years, including on Americans suspected of crimes, according to a ruling released on Friday. The decision by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). The searches occurred in the course of […]

By Joey Roulette WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A team led by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin won a coveted $3.4 billion NASA contract to build a spacecraft to fly astronauts to and from the moon’s surface, the U.S. space agency said on Friday, a breakthrough for the company two years after it lost out to Elon Musk’s SpaceX in another competition. Blue Origin plans to build its 52-foot (16-meter) tall Blue Moon lander […]

By Dietrich Knauth NEW YORK (Reuters) -The families of Sandy Hook shooting victims said they had a strong case to reverse payments received by Alex Jones’ wife and others in his family to help satisfy $1.5 billion in judgments they won against the bankrupt right wing conspiracy theorist over his lies about the 2012 elementary school massacre. Jones has engaged in “financial gymnastics” to hide his assets and avoid paying […]

By Moira Warburton, Richard Cowan and Andrea Shalal WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Republican U.S. lawmakers resumed negotiations with President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration on Friday on raising the federal government’s $31.4 trillion debt ceiling, top congressional Republican Kevin McCarthy said. Talks resumed hours after being paused by McCarthy’s lead negotiator and Biden’s representatives, which rattled financial markets as the deadline ticked closer to avoid default. “We’ll be back in the room tonight,” […]

By Bill Trott (Reuters) -Jim Brown, one of the greatest running backs in the history of the National Football League who quit the game at the height of his career to act in Hollywood movies and add his voice to the civil rights movement, has died. He was 87. Brown died on Thursday night, his wife Monique Brown said on Instagram. “To the world he was an activist, actor, and […]

By Gram Slattery and Jason Lange WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Republican U.S. Senator Tim Scott has entered the 2024 presidential race, according to a filing with the U.S. election regulator on Friday, in what amounts to a long-shot bet that a message of unity and optimism can still appeal in a party where many voters are hungry for a bare-knuckled fight. The impoverished child of a single mother and the only Black […]

By Tim McLaughlin and Sarah N. Lynch WORCESTER (Reuters) -A U.S. judge on Friday ordered the Air National Guardsman accused of leaking military secrets to remain in jail as he awaits trial on charges he violated the Espionage Act. Magistrate Judge David Hennessy made the decision after lawyers for Jack Douglas Teixeira, 21, asked for him to be released to house arrest pending trial. No trial date has been set. […]

By Ismail Shakil OTTAWA (Reuters) -Authorities in Canada’s main oil-producing province of Alberta have closed some parks and campgrounds, and are urging residents to avoid activities that could enrage wildfires to avoid straining firefighting resources over the holiday weekend. Traditionally, residents spend the Victoria Day long weekend outside as families take advantage of the warmer weather to go camping or enjoy other outdoor activities. The long weekend in May usually […]