All posts tagged: Reuters

Reuters criticizes Trump’s ban of Associated Press reporters in Oval Office, Air Force One

Published by Sam

[ad_1] Associated Press White House reporter Darlene Superville and AP photographer Ben Curtis are told by a U.S. President Donald Trump administration member that they have been denied from joining the White House press pool in West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., February 15, 2025.  Kevin Lamarque | Reuters Reuters on Saturday objected to the restrictions placed on media outlets by the White House, after the Trump administration earlier this week barred the Associated Press from key spaces such as the Oval Office and Air Force One. “Reuters stands with the Associated Press and other media organizations in objecting to coverage restrictions imposed by the White House on the AP, because of the AP’s independent editorial decisions,” read a statement from the Reuters Press Team on X. “Reuters believes that journalists should be free to report the news reliably, independently, and without harassment or harm, wherever they are, including in the United States,” it continued. The comment comes after the White House’s decision earlier this week to ban all AP reporters from the Oval Office and …

Trump’s transition team aims to kill Biden EV tax credit: Reuters

Published by Sam

[ad_1] U.S. President Joe Biden answers questions from reporters after driving a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon Xe around the White House driveway following remarks during an event on the South Lawn of the White House on Aug. 5, 2021, in Washington, D.C. Biden delivered remarks on the administration’s efforts to strengthen American leadership on clean cars and trucks. Win Mcnamee | Getty Images News | Getty Images President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is planning to kill the $7,500 consumer tax credit for electric-vehicle purchases as part of broader tax-reform legislation, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Ending the tax credit could have grave implications for an already stalling U.S. EV transition. And yet representatives of Tesla — by far the nation’s largest EV seller — have told a Trump-transition committee they support ending the subsidy, said the two sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Elon Musk, one of Trump’s biggest backers and the world’s richest person, said earlier this year that killing the subsidy might slightly hurt Tesla sales but would devastate its U.S. EV competitors, which …

Analysis-Tesla’s EV Charging Team Layoffs Threaten to Slow Biden’s Program to Electrify Highways

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Elon Musk’s decision to gut Tesla’s electric-vehicle charging team is scrambling plans for rolling out new fast-charging stations and may delay President Joe Biden’s efforts to electrify U.S. highways. Last year, the Biden administration announced rules for an ambitious plan to expand the country’s charging infrastructure and jump-start EV adoption. Under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program, the government is doling out $5 billion to states over five years to build 500,000 EV chargers. EV market leader Tesla, which also operates the largest network of fast chargers – called Superchargers – in the U.S. and is the biggest winner so far of those federal funds, was seen as a crucial part of that plan. Since news of Tesla’s abrupt EV charging layoffs surfaced, however, executives at charging companies say they have been receiving phone calls from landlords looking for a new partner for their private charging projects after Tesla pulled out. Now, the charging companies are preparing for Tesla to pull out of the federal program. That, they say, …

Australia Targets Social Media With Parliamentary Probe

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia announced on Friday that it would hold a parliamentary inquiry to look into the negative impacts of social media platforms, saying they have significant reach and control over what Australians see online, with almost no scrutiny. The government has criticised social media platforms for not being quick enough to remove violent posts and seeks more oversight over content posted on Meta’s Facebook, ByteDance’s TikTok and Elon Musk-owned X. “Across a range of issues, whether it be the issue of domestic violence, whether it be the radicalisation of our young people, across a range of areas, something that keeps popping up over and over again is the role of social media,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters. “(They) can be very positive but also can have a negative influence which is there.” Albanese’s Labor government is already in a legal fight with Musk’s X over a regulatory order asking the platform to take down videos of the stabbing attack on an Assyrian church bishop in Sydney last month. X said it …

US to Post Influenza A Wastewater Data Online to Assist Bird Flu Probe, Official Says

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] CHICAGO (Reuters) -The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is planning to post data on influenza A found in wastewater in a public dashboard possibly as soon as Friday that could offer new clues into the outbreak of H5N1 bird flu in cattle herds. CDC wastewater team lead Amy Kirby told Reuters on Thursday that the agency has identified spikes of influenza A, of which H5N1 is a subtype, in a handful of sites and is investigating the source. She said there is no indication of human infection with H5N1. Testing wastewater from sewers proved to be a powerful tool for detecting mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 virus during the COVID-19 pandemic. Kirby said the CDC has been collecting influenza data in wastewater in about 600 sites since at least last fall to better track respiratory infections. That data can now be helpful in tracking the outbreak of H5N1 bird flu that has infected 42 dairy herds in nine U.S. states, and one dairy farm worker. Scientists are closely watching for changes in …

US Asylum Change Aims to Speed up Some Rejections at Mexico Border

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A new U.S. asylum change announced on Thursday aims to more quickly reject asylum seekers caught illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border if they pose certain criminal and national security concerns, a limited move to cut down on crossings. A proposed regulation would allow asylum officers to deny claims of migrants convicted of a serious crime, linked to terrorism or posing other dangers to public safety, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a press release. The rejections could take place in days instead of a process that can take years, DHS said. Reuters and other outlets reported the plans on Wednesday. The measure will be limited in scope, potentially applying to thousands of asylum seekers per year, sources told Reuters. That would be a fraction of the 1 million caught crossing illegally from Oct. 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024. A DHS official on a call with reporters declined to offer an estimate of how many asylum seekers could be rejected under the proposal. “We don’t think that the rule will …

Zelenskiy Dismisses Head of State Guard After Two Members Accused of Assassination Plot

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy dismissed the head of the state guards on Thursday, two days after two of its members were accused of plotting to assassinate the president. Zelenskiy issued a decree dismissing Serhiy Rud. No successor was identified. The state security service (SBU) said this week it had caught two men, colonels in the state guard service, accused of plotting the assassination of Zelenskiy and other top officials. The SBU said the assassinations were to have been a “gift” for Vladimir Putin as he was sworn in for a new term in the Kremlin on Tuesday. It said the men were recruited by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) who leaked classified information to Moscow. The men, the SBU said, were tasked with finding someone close to the presidential guard who would take Zelenskiy hostage and later kill him. There was no indication at what point the alleged plot had been foiled. Moscow issued no comment on the SBU’s statement. The president, the very prominent leader of his country’s defence more than …

US House Panel to Hold Hearing on Maryland Bridge Collapse

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will hold a May 15 hearing on the federal government’s response to the collapse of a Baltimore bridge. The Dali cargo ship crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26, killing six people. The hearing will include Federal Highway Administrator Shailen Bhatt, National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy and senior officials with the U.S. Coast Guard and Army Corps of Engineers. The NTSB is expected to announce preliminary findings from the investigation next week. Last month, Homendy said investigators had conducted interviews with key cargo ship personnel in the investigation including the pilots, the second officer – who was the man on watch at the time of the crash – and other key personnel, as well as U.S. Coast Guard personnel. The NTSB has downloaded the voyage data recorder and brought in the manufacturer of equipment in the engine room to closely examine the electrical power system work. The NTSB is also looking at the circuit breakers and has tested the fuel …

Passenger Plane’s Tire Bursts on Landing in Turkey; No Casualties

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] ANKARA (Reuters) – A Corendon Airlines Boeing 737 plane’s front tire burst upon landing at an airport in southern Turkey on Thursday, the Turkish transport minister said, adding there were no casualties and all 190 passengers and crew were evacuated. The front landing gear strut was damaged on the Corendon Airlines plane, arriving from Cologne, Germany, as it landed at Alanya-Gazipasa airport in Antalya, Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said. “All our relevant units were on the field and were on alert. Thank God, there were no injuries to the 184 passengers and 6 crew,” Uraloglu said on social media platform X, adding initial evaluations showed there was no damage to the runway, which was temporarily closed. On Wednesday, Turkish authorities launched an investigation into a FedEx Airlines Boeing 767 cargo plane landing at Istanbul Airport without its front landing gear. After Thursday’s incident, flights were diverted to the main Antalya airport and other nearby airports, the minister said. Corendon said in a statement the plane halted safely on the runway after the tire burst. Experts …

Explainer-How Dependent Is China on US Artificial Intelligence Technology?

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] HONG KONG (Reuters) – The Biden administration plans to put guardrails on U.S.-developed artificial intelligence (AI) models that power popular chatbots like ChatGPT to safeguard the technology from countries such as China and Russia, Reuters has reported. But China in the past year has built its own domestic generative AI industry and has been urging its companies to avoid foreign technology. Here is how reliant China currently is on U.S. AI models and the impact Washington’s plans may have: HOW ACCESSIBLE ARE OPENAI’S AI MODELS IN CHINA? OpenAI’s key AI services such as ChatGPT and the DALL-E image generator have not been officially rolled out in mainland China. An OpenAI spokesperson told Reuters last year that it was unable to do so in certain countries due to local “conditions”. However, a large number of companies and engineers have accessed OpenAI’s services using proxy tools like virtual private networks (VPN) to mask their network addresses. As such, many Chinese companies have been able to build software and applications on top of OpenAI’s models. Chinese companies …