Town Hall News

By Tom Wilson LONDON (Reuters) – At the turn of the year, bitcoin was in the grip of a bleak midwinter, down and out after a 2022 defined by tumbling crypto prices, bankruptcies and corporate scandals. Less than three months later, bitcoin’s got its mojo back. With gains of more than 70% so far this year, it has outpaced other major assets, and was on Wednesday trading near its highest […]

By Anna Tong Unity Software Inc, producer of the eponymous video game development environment, aims to open a marketplace for generative artificial intelligence (AI) software, Chief Executive John Riccitiello told Reuters. Game developers routinely spend significant resources creating assets such as characters and sound effects. In future, developers could visit Unity’s marketplace, select an AI product such as an artwork generator, and be able to use it to instantly create […]

By Elizabeth Piper LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is set to win parliamentary approval on Wednesday for a key element of a post-Brexit deal on Northern Ireland, a victory tainted by a lack of support from the province’s biggest unionist party and some of his lawmakers. Sunak has sought to end years of wrangling over Brexit by revisiting one of the trickiest parts of the negotiations – […]

By Michael Holden LONDON (Reuters) -The chair of a public inquiry examining “extremely serious” allegations that British armed forces carried out dozens of extra-judicial killings in Afghanistan said on Wednesday that any soldiers who had broken the law should face investigation. The independent inquiry was ordered by Britain’s defence ministry last December after a BBC TV documentary reported that soldiers from the elite Special Air Service (SAS) had killed 54 […]

BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany’s economic council on Wednesday warned that inflation could remain high for longer or even pick up again if financial market worries prevent central banks from raising interest rates. “The recent increase in financial market risks has made it more difficult for central banks to fight inflation,” the five “wise ones” who advise Berlin on economic policy said in their biannual report. “If the monetary policy response is […]

BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany’s economic council on Wednesday warned that inflation could remain high for longer or even pick up again if financial market worries prevent central banks from raising interest rates. “The recent increase in financial market risks has made it more difficult for central banks to fight inflation,” the five “wise ones” who advise Berlin on economic policy said in their biannual report. “If the monetary policy response is […]

BARCELONA (Reuters) -German carmaker Volkswagen plans to produce 3 million small electric vehicles at its two plants in Spain between 2025 and 2030, Wayne Griffiths, the chairman of VW’s Spanish unit SEAT, said on Wednesday. The German car maker is pushing the electrification of its production and plans to build a battery plant in Spain. Griffiths said SEAT aims to assemble 500,000 electric cars a year in the medium-term at […]

By Iain Withers and Nell Mackenzie LONDON (Reuters) -The banking turmoil sparked by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank is not yet over, and a significant number of banks will fail within two years, the CEO of hedge fund Man Group told a Bloomberg conference in London on Wednesday. Asked whether the crisis in the sector was over, Man Group’s Luke Ellis told delegates he did not think so. Market […]

BERLIN (Reuters) -A German police officer was shot and wounded during raids on properties across the country linked to investigations into the far-right Reichsbuerger movement, the justice minister and prosecutors said on Wednesday. One person was detained on suspicion of attempted murder after shots were fired in the southern town of Reutlingen, near Stuttgart, German prosecutors said. The searches follow raids in December, when German police foiled a plot by […]