Town Hall News

By Richa Naidu, Emma Pinedo and Emilio Parodi MADRID (Reuters) – Spanish police raided three clandestine tobacco factories early this year, seizing nearly 40 million euros ($44 million) worth of tobacco leaf and illicit cigarettes. At one, in the northern town of Alfaro, they found 10 Ukrainian workers, five of them war refugees, who’d been put to work with no contracts and scant pay, police said. They worked all day […]

By Byron Kaye SYDNEY (Reuters) – One of Australia’s most decorated living soldiers on Thursday lost a defamation lawsuit against three newspapers which accused him of involvement in the unlawful killings of six Afghans during his deployment to Afghanistan. The newspapers successfully established that their reports were true in relation to most of the defamatory imputations that the soldier complained about, said Federal Court judge Anthony Besanko in Sydney, ending […]

By Matt McKnight SEATTLE (Reuters) – Some Amazon.com Inc employees staged a walkout on Wednesday in protest of the e-commerce giant’s changes to its climate policy, layoffs and a return-to-office mandate. More than 100 people gathered in the afternoon by the Spheres, the glass-dome monument at the heart of Amazon’s Seattle headquarters, according to a Reuters witness. “Emissions climbing. Time to act!” the group chanted. “Stand together; don’t turn back!” […]

By Byron Kaye SYDNEY (Reuters) – One of Australia’s most decorated living soldiers on Thursday lost a defamation lawsuit against three newspapers which accused him of involvement in the unlawful killings of six Afghans during his deployment to Afghanistan. The newspapers successfully established that their reports were true in relation to most of the defamatory imputations that the soldier complained about, said Federal Court judge Anthony Besanko in Sydney, ending […]

By Roxanne Liu and Josh Ye BEIJING/HONG KONG (Reuters) – Chinese startup MiniMax, working on AI solutions similar to that of Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s ChatGPT, is close to completing a fundraising of more than $250 million that will value it at about $1.2 billion, people familiar with the matter said. The deal comes amid a global AI buzz kicked off by ChatGPT that has spread to China, shoring up stocks in […]

By Tim Kelly TOKYO (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said it was “unfortunate” his Chinese counterpart had declined to meet him at a security forum in Singapore, because they needed to communicate to stop dangerous encounters between military aircraft. “The provocative intercept of our aircraft and our allies’ aircraft is very concerning and we would hope they would alter their actions,” Austin said at a news conference after […]

By Tim Kelly TOKYO (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said it was “unfortunate” his Chinese counterpart had declined to meet him at a security forum in Singapore, because they needed to communicate to stop dangerous encounters between military aircraft. “The provocative intercept of our aircraft and our allies’ aircraft is very concerning and we would hope they would alter their actions,” Austin said at a news conference after […]

BEIJING (Reuters) – China Vice Minister of Science and Technology Zhang Guangjun encouraged Softbank-owned British chip technology firm Arm to deepen its cooperation with Chinese research institutions, colleges and companies, his ministry said on Thursday. In a meeting with Arm CEO Rene Haas in Beijing on Tuesday, Zhang said Arm’s potential for development in the Chinese market is big, and the ministry will continue to provide services and support for […]

By John Irish and Andrew Gray BULBOACA, Moldova (Reuters) – NATO will monitor the skies over Moldova as more than 40 European leaders attend a summit close to Ukraine’s borders to show support for both countries as Kyiv prepares a counter-offensive against Russia’s invasion. The gathering of the EU’s 27 member states and 20 other European countries at a castle deep in Moldovan wine country just 20 km (12 miles) […]