Town Hall News

By Kirstin Ridley LONDON (Reuters) – A former Barclays director, fired for sexual harassment and other misconduct, is suing the British bank for more than 584,600 pounds ($719,412), arguing that female colleagues fabricated allegations and that his dismissal was unfair. Robert Record, once a senior wealth manager overseeing assets worth 580 million pounds, was dismissed in September 2020 for gross misconduct after a 14-year career, documents available at the East […]

By Layli Foroudi PARIS (Reuters) – France’s National Assembly on Thursday approved the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) video surveillance during the 2024 Paris Olympics, overlooking warnings from civil rights groups that the technology posed a threat to civil liberties. The government says algorithmic video surveillance can detect “pre-determined events”, abnormal behaviour and crowd surges, helping ensure the safety of millions of tourists who are expected to flood the French […]

By Manya Saini (Reuters) – Hindenburg Research on Thursday disclosed short positions in Block Inc and alleged that the payments firm led by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey overstated its user numbers and understated its customer acquisition costs. Block vowed to fight back, saying it would explore legal action against the short seller for its “factually inaccurate and misleading report” that was “designed to deceive and confuse investors”. “Hindenburg is known […]

By Layli Foroudi PARIS (Reuters) – France’s National Assembly on Thursday approved the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) video surveillance during the 2024 Paris Olympics, overlooking warnings from civil rights groups that the technology posed a threat to civil liberties. The government says algorithmic video surveillance can detect “pre-determined events”, abnormal behaviour and crowd surges, helping ensure the safety of millions of tourists who are expected to flood the French […]

MADRID (Reuters) – A forest fire raged in eastern Spain on Thursday, forcing hundreds of people to evacuate from nearby villages and sending huge plumes of smoke into the air. Firefighters were alerted about the blaze near Villanueva de Viver in the region of Valencia just before 1 p.m. (1200 GMT). Ten airplanes were fighting to put out the blaze, which had forced the evacuation of the villages of three […]

By Siddharth Cavale NEW YORK (Reuters) -Hundreds of workers at five U.S. Walmart facilities that fulfill e-commerce orders are being asked to find jobs within 90 days at other company locations, a spokesperson confirmed to Reuters. About 200 workers at Pedricktown, New Jersey, and hundreds of others at Fort Worth, Texas; Chino, California; Davenport, Florida; and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania were let go due to a reduction or elimination in evening and […]

(Reuters) – The United States and the European Commission have negotiated a possible agreement to allow for electric vehicles with critical minerals extracted or processed in the European Union to qualify for U.S. green subsidies, Handelsblatt reported on Thursday. Lithium, manganese, nickel and cobalt – key minerals for battery production – would fall under the agreement and should therefore qualify for subsidies under the U.S. $430-billion Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) […]

By Lori Ewing MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) -World Athletics has banned transgender women from competing in elite female competitions if they have gone through male puberty, the sport’s governing body said on Thursday. The council also voted to tighten restrictions on athletes with Differences in Sex Development (DSD), cutting the maximum amount of plasma testosterone for athletes in half, to 2.5 nanomoles per litre from five. World Athletics president Sebastian Coe […]

By Horaci Garcia and Ingrid Melander PARIS (Reuters) -Police fired tear gas to repel violent black-clad anarchists in Paris on Thursday as hundreds of thousands of mainly peaceful protesters marched across France against President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to raise the pension age. In a ninth day of nationwide protests, train and air travel was disrupted while teachers were among many professions to walk off the job, just days after the […]