Town Hall News

By Elizabeth Howcroft LONDON (Reuters) – The collapse of crypto exchange FTX and its grant-making body, the FTX Future Fund, has left some researchers at top universities without the funds they were promised and others trying to repay grants before they could be ordered to. Launched in February 2022, the FTX Future Fund was part of the FTX Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire which fell apart […]

By Trevor Hunnicutt WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday takes the Biden administration’s jobs agenda to a right-wing Georgia congressional district represented by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, an avid supporter of former President Donald Trump. Harris, a Democrat, is headed to the small northwestern Georgia town of Dalton to talk about the growing solar manufacturing business as part of a nationwide tour by President Joe Biden […]

ROME/STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – OpenAI plans to present measures to Italian authorities on Thursday to remedy concerns that led to a ban of its ChatGPT chatbot in Italy last week, the country’s data protection authorities said. The Italian agency, also known as Garante, accused Microsoft Corp-backed OpenAI of failing to check the age of ChatGPT users and the “absence of any legal basis that justifies the massive collection and storage of […]

By Michel Rose and Laurie Chen BEIJING (Reuters) -French President Emmanuel Macron urged China’s Xi Jinping on Thursday to reason with Russia and help bring an end to the war in Ukraine as the two held the first of a series of high-level meetings in Beijing. “The Russian aggression in Ukraine has dealt a blow to (international) stability,” Macron told Xi, standing alongside the Chinese president outside the Great Hall […]

By Elizabeth Howcroft LONDON (Reuters) – The collapse of crypto exchange FTX and its grant-making body, the FTX Future Fund, has left some researchers at top universities without the funds they were promised and others trying to repay grants before they could be ordered to. Launched in February 2022, the FTX Future Fund was part of the FTX Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire which fell apart […]

By Bernard Orr and Aziz El Yaakoubi BEIJING/RIYADH (Reuters) – The foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia met in Beijing on Thursday for the first formal gathering of their top diplomats in more than seven years, after China brokered a deal to restore relations between the top regional powers. After years of hostility that fuelled conflicts across the Middle East, Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed to end their diplomatic […]

ROME/STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -OpenAI plans to present measures to Italian authorities on Thursday to remedy concerns that led to a ban of its ChatGPT chatbot in Italy last week, the country’s data protection authorities said. The Italian agency, also known as Garante, accused Microsoft Corp-backed OpenAI of failing to check the age of ChatGPT users and the “absence of any legal basis that justifies the massive collection and storage of personal […]

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain is to investigate Amazon.com’s anticipated takeover of robot vacuum maker iRobot Corp, the country’s competition regulator said on Thursday. The e-commerce giant’s planned $1.7 billion acquisition of iRobot, aimed at expanding its stable of smart home devices, is already being reviewed by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority said it is also now considering whether the deal could reduce competition in the […]

BEIJING (Reuters) – There is no such thing as illegal trafficking of fentanyl between China and Mexico, China’s foreign ministry said on Thursday, responding to a letter from the Mexican president asking Beijing to help limit illicit flows of the deadly drug. China has not been notified by Mexico about any seizure of fentanyl from China, ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a regular briefing. “U.S. needs to face up […]