Town Hall News

By Noel Randewich and Akash Sriram (Reuters) -Microsoft Corp and Google-parent Alphabet Inc talked up investments in artificial intelligence (AI) for the second quarter in a row but their results on Tuesday suggested that any substantial additions to sales will be slow. The tech behemoths have launched an array of products that they promise are packed with generative AI, which creates brand new content – text, image, code – from […]

MOSCOW (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase & Co received permission from the United States to process payments for Russian Agricultural Bank but such an avenue cannot replace the reconnection of the bank the SWIFT payment system, a Russian source told Reuters. Reconnecting the bank to SWIFT is one of Russia’s key demands in a negotiation over the future of the Black Sea grain deal. Moscow has repeatedly warned the deal will […]

By Kantaro Komiya and Joey Roulette (Reuters) -Japan’s ispace inc said its attempt to make the first private moon landing had failed after losing contact with its Hakuto-R Mission 1 (M1) lander when it unexpectedly accelerated and probably crashed on the lunar surface. The startup said it was possible that as the lander approached the moon, its altitude measurement system had miscalculated the distance to the surface. “It apparently went […]

By Maggie Fick and Natalie Grover LONDON (Reuters) – British drugmaker GSK on Wednesday warned that the overhaul of laws governing the EU’s pharmaceuticals industry risks forcing companies to invest and innovate elsewhere, which would hurt EU efforts to improve access to medicines. GSK Chief Executive Emma Walmsley told reporters on a quarterly earnings call that the European Union must “regulate for growth and competitiveness” because her company and others […]

By Kantaro Komiya and Joey Roulette (Reuters) -Japan’s ispace inc said its attempt to make the first private moon landing had failed after losing contact with its Hakuto-R Mission 1 (M1) lander when it unexpectedly accelerated and probably crashed on the lunar surface. The startup said it was possible that as the lander approached the moon, its altitude measurement system had miscalculated the distance to the surface. “It apparently went […]

WARSAW (Reuters) – Microsoft will build a data centre in Poland, the company’s President for Europe, the Middle east and Africa (EMEA) said on Wednesday at the European Economic Congress in the southern city of Katowice. (This story has been corrected to say that the data centre has been launched, instead of that it will be built, in the headline and in paragraph 1) (Reporting by Alan Charlish, Pawel Florkiewicz) […]

By Mark Gleeson CAPE TOWN (Reuters) – Zambian football will on Friday commemorate the 30th anniversary of the plane crash that wiped out almost of all the national team, mourning the loss of a golden generation that players say inspired the nation to later victories. Eighteen footballers were among 30 people killed when a Zambian air force plane crashed off the coast of Gabon, shortly after a refuelling stop on […]

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Leaders from a top U.S. business lobbying group said on Wednesday that Beijing’s probe against U.S.-based chipmaker Micron Technology Inc marked a “major concern” for other companies operating in the country. In the absence of data or “real evidence showing that Micron’s products provided or stood as an example of a particular vulnerability to China,” the probe suggests other companies or industries could be singled by Beijing […]

DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran’s Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of Iranian-German national Jamshid Sharmahd on charges of “corruption on earth”, the judiciary’s spokesperson Masoud Setayeshi said on Wednesday. Sharmahd, who also has U.S. residency, is accused by Iran of heading a pro-monarchist group accused of a deadly 2008 bombing and planning other attacks in the country. (Reporting by Dubai Newsroom; Editing by Andrew Heavens) Brought to you by […]