Town Hall News

By Stephen Nellis (Reuters) – Artificial intelligence chips from Qualcomm Inc beat Nvidia Corp in two out of three measures of power efficiency in a new set of test data published on Wednesday, while a Taiwanese startup bested both in one category. Nvidia dominates the market for training AI models with huge amounts of data. But after those AI models are trained, they are put to wider use in what […]

By Michael Martina and David Brunnstrom LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in California on Wednesday, becoming the most senior U.S. figure to meet a Taiwanese leader on U.S. soil since 1979 despite threats of retaliation from China, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as its own. McCarthy, a Republican who through his House position is number three in the U.S. leadership hierarchy, welcomed Tsai […]

LISBON (Reuters) – A Portugal-based European consumer protection group has sued short-video app TikTok for allegedly allowing children aged under 13 to sign up for an account without parental consent and failing to implement measures to protect them. The lawsuit came a day after Britain’s data watchdog said it had fined TikTok 12.7 million pounds ($15.81 million) for breaching data protection law, including by using the personal data of children […]

(Reuters) – A fire broke out at a building belonging to Russia’s defence ministry in the centre of Moscow on Wednesday evening, the TASS news agency reported citing emergency services. Footage shared by state media outlets on social media showed a small plume of black smoke rising from the defence ministry’s headquarters in Moscow on Znamenka street, near the Kremlin. There were no details on any casualties or the cause […]

(Reuters) – The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Wednesday that it would oppose a move by the Ukrainian government to strip national sports governing bodies of their national status if their athletes compete against Russians or Belarusians. The IOC sanctioned Russia and Belarus after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 but last week said it recommended allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete as neutrals in international competition. […]

YEFREMOV, Russia (Reuters) – A Russian court will on Thursday hold a custody hearing for a 13-year-old girl who was forced into a children’s home after drawing an anti-war picture that prompted an investigation and then conviction of her father for discrediting the armed forces. Russia introduced severe punishments for discrediting the armed forces after President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, laws that have snared […]

By Andrew Goudsward (Reuters) – Three former executives of medical device company Magellan Diagnostics concealed a malfunction in the company’s lead-testing devices that caused tests to underestimate the level of lead in people’s blood, U.S. prosecutors in Boston said in announcing criminal charges on Wednesday. Amy Winslow, Hossein Maleknia and Reba Daoust misled Magellan customers and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about when they discovered the defect, the extent […]

By Andrew Goudsward (Reuters) – Three former executives of medical device company Magellan Diagnostics concealed a malfunction in the company’s lead-testing devices that caused tests to underestimate the level of lead in people’s blood, U.S. prosecutors in Boston said in announcing criminal charges on Wednesday. Amy Winslow, Hossein Maleknia and Reba Daoust misled Magellan customers and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about when they discovered the defect, the extent […]

By Riham Alkousaa and Stephan Schepers LIPPSTADT (Germany) (Reuters) – Hussain Besou was just four when he started asking his father to teach him chess, hovering around the board as he played in the evenings in the Middle East until he said yes. After mastering the basic moves, Besou quickly surprised everyone with his talent. “He started correcting us and telling us what we should have done to win,” said […]