Town Hall News

By Dominique Vidalon PARIS (Reuters) -Two French citizens, Bernard Phelan and Benjamin Briere, have been freed from detention in Iran, President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday. French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said in a separate statement that both men were now on their way to France, adding that she spoke to her Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir Abdollahian, on Friday morning. “Benjamin Briere and Bernard Phelan will be reunited with their […]

By Rachael Levy WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. lawmakers will ask regulators to investigate whether the make-up of a panel overseeing animal testing at Elon Musk’s brain-chip startup Neuralink contributed to botched and rushed experiments. U.S. House Representatives Earl Francis Blumenauer and Adam Schiff, both Democrats, have signed a draft letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) requesting a probe into how Neuralink oversaw its experiments, Blumenauer’s office said. The […]

By Charlotte Van Campenhout PARIS (Reuters) – Police have arrested 27 eel traffickers and seized 254 kg of contraband eels in an international investigation dubbed operation “Lake” that started almost 2 years ago, French authorities said in a statement on Friday. Police discovered that four tonnes of eels had been fraudulently exported between 2021 and 2023 for a profit estimated at nearly 1,186,000 euros, the statement said. The European eel […]

By Rachael Levy WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. lawmakers will ask regulators to investigate whether the make-up of a panel overseeing animal testing at Elon Musk’s brain-chip startup Neuralink contributed to botched and rushed experiments. U.S. House Representatives Earl Francis Blumenauer and Adam Schiff, both Democrats, have signed a draft letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) requesting a probe into how Neuralink oversaw its experiments, Blumenauer’s office said. The […]

By Shreyashi Sanyal and Shristi Achar A (Reuters) – Wall Street’s main stock indexes were set to open higher on Friday as Tesla rose and shares of regional banks held steady after a selloff, while data-driven hopes of a pause in interest-rate hikes bolstered investor sentiment. Both consumer and producer prices cooled a bit, while weekly jobless claims posted their sharpest rise in 1-1/2-years. The University of Michigan’s preliminary reading […]

By Aditya Kalra NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India’s competition watchdog has begun an inquiry into Google after some companies alleged the service fee the U.S. firm charges for in-app payments breaches an earlier antitrust directive, a regulatory order seen by Reuters showed on Friday. Tinder-owner Match Group and Indian startups have asked the watchdog to investigate Google’s new User Choice Billing (UCB) system, which they alleged was anti-competitive. The Competition Commission […]

(Reuters) – Billionaire investor Daniel Loeb is no longer exploring a potential acquisition of SiriusPoint, according to a regulatory filing on Friday, a month after disclosing his interest in taking the insurance firm private. Loeb and SiriusPoint were unable to reach a consensus on the value of a potential deal, the filing said. The news sent shares of the insurance firm tumbling 12.7% to $8.69 in premarket trading. The company […]

By Sabine Siebold STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – The European Union needs to be prepared for the fallout from a potential deterioration in relations with China, such as might happen if conflict were to erupt over Taiwan, Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said on Friday. Landsbergis said he was not advocating a “de-coupling” from China, but pointed to the break with Moscow over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 as the […]

By Kirsty Needham SYDNEY (Reuters) -Papua New Guinea (PNG) Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko said he was resigning as minister on Friday amid a controversy over the cost and size of the country’s delegation to the coronation of King Charles III in London. Tkatchenko said in a statement that he “stood aside” after consulting with Prime Minister James Marape, who would assume the portfolio. He remains in parliament. “I want to […]