Town Hall News

Dec 4 (Reuters) – Microsoft will increase prices for its Microsoft 365 productivity suites globally starting July 2026 for commercial and government clients, the company said on Thursday. The move comes as Microsoft’s suite, which includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint, faces growing competition from Google’s products. The price hike will affect businesses and public sector agencies, with small business and frontline worker plans seeing the sharpest increases. Microsoft 365 Business […]

Dec 4 (Reuters) – CNBC has signed a multi-year deal with prediction-market operator Kalshi, bringing real-time probability data into the network’s TV broadcasts and digital platforms starting next year, the companies said on Thursday. Founded in 2018, Kalshi is a prediction market exchange where users trade contracts on the outcomes of real-world events, such as economic indicators, weather patterns, and legislative results. The partnership comes just days after a similar […]

By Alexandra Alper WASHINGTON, Dec 4 (Reuters) – A bipartisan group of U.S. senators, including prominent Republican China hawk Tom Cotton, on Thursday unveiled a bill that would block the Trump administration from loosening rules that restrict Beijing’s access to artificial intelligence chips for 2.5 years.  The bill, known as the SAFE CHIPS Act, was filed by Republican Senator Pete Ricketts and Democrat Chris Coons. It would require the Commerce Department, […]

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — A delegation of representatives from the 15 member states of the United Nations Security Council visited Syria Thursday for the first time since the council’s founding in 1945. The visit comes just ahead of the one-year anniversary of the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad in a lightning rebel offensive. It marks the country’s continued reintegration into the international fold under its new government headed […]

The latest U.S. push to end Russia’s nearly 4-year-old war in Ukraine has unleashed a frenzy of diplomatic activity. Negotiators and officials from the U.S., Ukraine and Russia have crisscrossed the globe in recent weeks in a flurry of meetings to discuss a potential deal. Here is a timeline of key talks. Nov. 19: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy travels to Turkey in what he said was an effort to jump-start […]

JATUN RUMI, Ecuador (AP) — High in the mountains of the Ecuadorian Andes, a group of young Otavalo Indigenous people is using anime to inspire pride in their ancient culture and language, especially among Otavalo children. They produced an animated short film titled “We’re Aya” that follows the adventures of Aya, a mythical Otavalo warrior, and other characters who interact under the watchful eye of a condor — an iconic […]

The focus in the murder trial of Brian Walshe turned Thursday to an affair his wife was having before he allegedly killed and dismembered her on New Year’s Day 2023. Ana Walshe, a real estate agent who immigrated from Serbia, was last seen early on Jan. 1, 2023, following a New Year’s Eve dinner at her Massachusetts home. Her body has never been found. Her husband, Brian Walshe faces a […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is expected to submit plans for its new ballroom to a planning commission this month, the presidentially appointed head of the panel said Thursday. “Once plans are submitted, that’s really when the role of this commission, and its professional staff, will begin,” Will Scharf, chair of the National Capital Planning Commission, said at its monthly meeting. The 90,000-square-foot ballroom will dwarf the main White […]

DETROIT (AP) — RoboCop has finally found a permanent home in Detroit. A statue looming 11 feet tall (3.3 meters) and weighing 3,500 pounds (1,587 kilograms) has been drawing fans since it began standing guard over the Motor City on Wednesday afternoon, after about 15 years in the making. Even in a snowstorm in the dark, people were driving by to see it, said Jim Toscano, co-owner of the FREE […]