Town Hall News

By David Lawder and Liz Lee DETROIT/BEIJING (Reuters) -U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao traded barbs on trade, investment and export policies in talks on Thursday described by Raimondo’s office as “candid and substantive.” Their meeting in Washington was the first U.S.-China cabinet-level exchange in months, after a string of trade and national security irritants derailed plans for re-engagement between the world’s two largest economies. […]

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan will place additional sanctions on Russia, a government bulletin showed on Friday, after the Group of Seven (G7) summit the country hosted last week in Hiroshima showed the G7 leaders’ resolve to support Ukraine. Japan will freeze assets of 78 groups and 17 individuals in Russia and ban exports to 80 Russian entities such as military-affiliated research labs, according to the bulletin. (Reporting by Kantaro Komiya; […]

By Martin Coulter and Supantha Mukherjee LONDON/STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – For months, Sam Altman, CEO of Microsoft-backed OpenAI has urged lawmakers around the world to draw up new rules governing the technology. On Wednesday, he threatened the ChatGPT maker may leave the EU if the bloc “overregulated”.     Altman has spent the past week crisscrossing Europe, meeting top politicians in France, Spain, Poland, Germany and the UK to discuss the future […]

By Nupur Anand (Reuters) -JPMorgan Chase & Co has notified nearly 1,000 First Republic Bank employees that they will no longer have a job as it integrates the failed lender it bought earlier this month, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday. JPMorgan, the largest U.S. bank, has offered employment to about 85% of First Republic’s almost 7,000 employees for transitional or full-time roles, the source said. […]

By Blake Brittain (Reuters) – Motif Foodworks told a Delaware federal court that plant-based meat rival Impossible Foods improperly hired private investigators who donned fake identities to solicit information about Motif’s products during their patent dispute. In documents unsealed on Tuesday, Motif said investigators who falsely claimed to represent potential partners started approaching them to obtain samples and other information about its meat substitute shortly after Impossible Foods filed a […]

By Jody Godoy (Reuters) – Bank of America must face cardholder allegations that it bungled its response to unauthorized transactions on unemployment and disability benefits cards in California during the pandemic, a San Diego judge ruled on Thursday. U.S. District Judge Larry Alan Burns said benefits recipients can move forward with a proposed class action lawsuit claiming the bank violated state law by issuing cards to millions of Californians that […]

By Blake Brittain (Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court on Thursday vacated a $570 million award Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp had won against rival software provider Atos SE’s Syntel Inc for theft of its trade secrets related to healthcare insurance software. The New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Cognizant was not entitled to the damages under the federal trade secret law and ordered a Manhattan federal court […]

By Arathy Somasekhar (Reuters) – Oil prices were roughly unchanged in early trading on Friday, as markets awaited clarity on OPEC and its allies’ next oil policy moves after conflicting messages made it hard to predict the outcome of the meeting next week. Brent crude slipped 4 cents to $76.22 a barrel at 0022 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate was up 9 cents, or 0.1%, at $71.92 a barrel. […]

By James Oliphant and Doina Chiacu WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ fledgling presidential campaign was looking to push forward on Thursday after a troubled online launch event drew mockery from his rivals and renewed doubts about his viability as a national candidate. DeSantis plans to barnstorm the early nominating states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina next week in his first series of public events since joining the […]