Town Hall News

By Lisa Pauline Mattackal (Reuters) – What do you get when you cross cryptocurrencies with artificial intelligence? A seemingly sentient bitcoin that codes itself in the style of Japanese haikus? Alas not, though you do get billions of dollars of trading in a new class of crypto tokens. The machine mania sweeping the tech world amid the launches of bots like ChatGPT and Bard has reached the cryptoverse, with interest […]

By Arathy Somasekhar HOUSTON (Reuters) -Oil dropped 2% on Tuesday after two sessions of gains as deepening concerns of an economic slowdown and a stronger dollar outweighed hopes of higher Chinese demand and lower U.S. crude stocks. Brent crude fell by $1.96, or 2.4%, to settle at $80.77 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude dropped $1.69, or 2.2%, to settle at $77.07. On Monday, both contracts rose by more […]

By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS (Reuters) -EU draft rules aimed at staving off spats over patents essential to key technologies for telecoms equipment and connected cars appear to put the onus and cost on patent owners, which could undermine Europe’s leadership in such areas, Nokia said. The comments from the Finnish telecoms equipment maker, whose standard essential patents (SEPs) generate about 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion) in revenues and account […]

By Deborah Mary Sophia (Reuters) – Mattel Inc and Hasbro Inc are expected to issue downbeat outlook for 2023 when they report quarterly results this week, as the U.S. toy industry is set to moderate after a pandemic-driven boom. With surging toy prices, both companies had signaled a bounce-back in the second half of this year. However, analysts are concerned about the pace of recovery as consumers are expected to […]

By Tatiana Bautzer NEW YORK (Reuters) -Citigroup Inc’s chairman John Dugan defended the company’s efforts to fix its regulatory problems and bolster its stock at the bank’s annual meeting on Tuesday. “We completely understand” shareholders’ frustration with the share price, he said, after fielding several questions from shareholders on the topic. Investor dissatisfaction is likely to persist for some time, said Mike Mayo, an analyst at Wells Fargo who attended […]

By Sarah N. Lynch and Doina Chiacu WASHINGTON (Reuters) – British American Tobacco Plc has agreed to pay more than $635 million to U.S. authorities after a subsidiary pleaded guilty to charges that it conspired to violate U.S. sanctions by selling tobacco products to North Korea and commit bank fraud, a U.S. court filing and the company said on Tuesday. The tobacco sales at the heart of Tuesday’s settlement took […]

By Luc Cohen, Jack Queen and Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) -The judge in former President Donald Trump’s rape case ordered lawyers at the start of a civil trial on Tuesday to keep their clients and witnesses from making public statements that could lead to violence. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan admonished them before seating nine jurors who will weigh whether Trump raped former Elle magazine advice columnist E. Jean […]

By David Morgan and Katharine Jackson WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A top Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives predicted on Tuesday his party will muster the votes needed to adopt a plan to slash spending and raise the government’s $31.4 trillion debt ceiling, despite signs of growing opposition within Republican ranks. “This will pass. I’m telling you right now, it will pass the House floor,” Representative Tom Emmer, the No. 3 […]

By Sriparna Roy and Bhanvi Satija (Reuters) – Biogen Inc said on Tuesday it will pause or discontinue at least four studies of experimental drugs to focus on more potentially lucrative options including its second Alzheimer’s treatment, Leqembi, in the latest attempt by the new CEO to trim costs. “We made good progress on the previous program that it amounts $1 billion of cost savings,” Chief Executive Christopher Viehbacker said […]