Town Hall News

By Marco Bello and Maria Alejandra Cardona PERRY, Florida (Reuters) – Hurricane Idalia plowed into Florida’s Gulf Coast on Wednesday with howling winds, torrential rains and pounding surf, then weakened as it turned its fury on southeastern Georgia, where floodwaters trapped some residents in their homes. Hours after Idalia slammed ashore as a powerful Category 3 hurricane at Keaton Beach in Florida’s Big Bend region, packing winds of about 125 […]

By Leika Kihara TOKYO (Reuters) -Bank of Japan board member Toyoaki Nakamura said on Thursday it was premature to tighten monetary policy as recent increases in inflation were mostly driven by higher import costs rather than wage gains. While many firms raised pay this year, there was uncertainty on whether smaller companies can earn enough profits to keep hiking wages next year and beyond, the former executive of electronics giant […]

By Ritsuko Shimizu and Rocky Swift TOKYO (Reuters) – Workers at a major Tokyo department store went on strike on Thursday after talks with management over the planned sale of their company broke down, marking the first major walk-out the country has seen in decades. Some 900 workers at the flagship Seibu store in the bustling district of Ikebukuro are protesting the nature of the planned sale of their company […]

By Stephen Nellis and Max A. Cherney (Reuters) -The U.S. expanded the restriction of exports of sophisticated Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices artificial-intelligence chips beyond China to other regions including some countries in the Middle East. Nvidia said in a regulatory filing this week that the curbs, which affect its A100 and H100 chips designed to speed up machine-learning tasks, would not have an “immediate material impact” on its results. […]

By Josh Ye and Urvi Manoj Dugar (Reuters) -At least three Chinese tech firms including Baidu, Baichuan Intelligent Technology and Zhipu AI are on Thursday launching artificial intelligence (AI) products after getting government approval as China accelerates AI deployment. Baidu, China’s leading online search provider, said in a statement its ChatGPT-like AI chatbot Ernie Bot would be fully open to the general public. Two AI startups, Baichuan Intelligent Technology and […]

By Josh Ye and Urvi Manoj Dugar (Reuters) -At least three Chinese tech firms including Baidu, Baichuan Intelligent Technology and Zhipu AI are on Thursday launching artificial intelligence (AI) products after getting government approval as China accelerates AI deployment. Baidu, China’s leading online search provider, said in a statement its ChatGPT-like AI chatbot Ernie Bot would be fully open to the general public. Two AI startups, Baichuan Intelligent Technology and […]

By Josh Ye and Urvi Manoj Dugar (Reuters) -At least three Chinese tech firms including Baidu, Baichuan Intelligent Technology and Zhipu AI are on Thursday launching artificial intelligence (AI) products after getting government approval as China accelerates AI deployment. Baidu, China’s leading online search provider, said in a statement its ChatGPT-like AI chatbot Ernie Bot would be fully open to the general public. Two AI startups, Baichuan Intelligent Technology and […]

BEIJING (Reuters) -China’s manufacturing activity contracted for a fifth straight month in August, an official survey showed on Thursday, maintaining pressure on officials to provide support to shore up economic growth amid soft demand both at home and abroad The official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose to 49.7 from 49.3 in July, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, staying below the 50-point level demarcating contraction from expansion. The reading […]

By Ritsuko Shimizu and Rocky Swift TOKYO (Reuters) – Workers at a major Tokyo department store went on strike on Thursday after talks with management over the planned sale of their company broke down, marking the first major walk-out the country has seen in decades. Some 900 workers at the flagship Seibu store in the bustling district of Ikebukuro are protesting the nature of the planned sale of their company […]