News That Matters

News

US Tells China Not to Overread Likely Taiwan President Visit
News

US Tells China Not to Overread Likely Taiwan President Visit

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is putting out the word in advance that an expected unofficial stopover in the United States by Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen would fall in line with recent precedent and should not be used as a pretext by Beijing to step up aggressive activity in the Taiwan Strait.In recent weeks, senior U.S. officials in Washington and Beijing have underscored to their Chinese counterparts that transit visits through the United States during broader international travel by the Taiwanese president have been routine in recent years, according to a senior administration official. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.In such visits in recent years, Tsai has met with members of Congress and the Taiwanese diaspora and has...
Deadly fungal infection spreading at an alarming rate, CDC says
News

Deadly fungal infection spreading at an alarming rate, CDC says

A drug-resistant and potentially deadly fungus has been spreading rapidly through U.S. health care facilities, a new government study finds.The fungus, a type of yeast called Candida auris, or C. auris, can cause severe illness in people with weakened immune systems. The number of people diagnosed with infections — as well as the number of those who were found through screening to be carrying C. auris — has been rising at an alarming rate since it was first reported in the U.S., researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Monday.The increases, “especially in the most recent years, are really concerning to us,” the study’s lead author, Dr. Meghan Lyman, chief medical officer in the CDC’s Mycotic Diseases Branch, said in an interview. “We’ve seen increases not...
Rightsizing the Role of Social Media for Young People
News

Rightsizing the Role of Social Media for Young People

PARIS – Across the globe the headlines come fast and furious.A mother discovers her 8-year-old daughter exchanging messages with a 22-year-old Florida man the child met on TikTok. In California, a 36-year-old man poses as a delivery driver and appears at the home of a young girl, one of more than 20 girls with whom he had initiated sexually explicit conversations. An Oregon mother wakes to find her son has committed suicide in the garage – the result of cyberbullying on social media.If these things happened at a neighborhood hangout, would you let your child go there? Of course not, yet it occurs every day in the spaces teens frequent the most: online social networks like TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat.Here in France, where I live and raise my daughter, parents have had enough – and law...
Factbox-Ernie Vs ChatGPT on Global Leaders
News

Factbox-Ernie Vs ChatGPT on Global Leaders

BEIJING (Reuters) - Baidu's unveiling of its Ernie bot last week thrust the Chinese search engine giant into a race against global tech peers Microsoft and Google who are also building powerful artificial intelligence-driven chatbots and products.Questions had remained over how Ernie and other Chinese chatbots in development would treat topics that are sensitive in mainland China, where authorities tightly censor the internet.Reuters' tests of ChatGPT indicated that the Microsoft-backed chatbot is not averse to answering such questions.Baidu last Thursday allowed users to apply for invitation codes to access Ernie, and Reuters tests on Monday showed it will decline questions about Chinese President Xi Jinping, saying it has not yet learnt to answer.These were some of the summarized answ...
Colombian President Suspends Ceasefire With Criminal Group
News

Colombian President Suspends Ceasefire With Criminal Group

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Sunday said he had suspended a ceasefire with the Clan del Golfo, the country's largest criminal organization, because it had attacked police."I have ordered the armed forces to reactivate all military operations against the Clan del Golfo," Petro said in a tweet. "We will not allow them to continue sowing anxiety and terror in the communities."Minutes later, Petro tweeted: "The rifle attack on the police force by the Clan del Golfo breaks the ceasefire.... The armed forces must act immediately against the mafia organization."Reuters was not able to immediately confirm any details about the rifle attack.The ceasefire with the Clan, also known as the Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces (AGC), was part of efforts to end the group's part i...
Swiss to Hold News Conference Amid Credit Suisse Troubles
News

Swiss to Hold News Conference Amid Credit Suisse Troubles

Swiss leaders are holding a news conference Sunday night following several media reports that banking giant UBS is believed to be in talks to acquire its smaller rival Credit Suisse in an effort to avoid further market-shaking turmoil in global banking.The Federal Council, the seven-member governing body that includes Swiss President Alain Berset, is expected to announce that UBS is acquiring Credit Suisse in a potential deal brokered by the Swiss government.The 167-year-old Credit Suisse already received a $50 billion (54 million Swiss francs) loan from the Swiss National Bank, which briefly caused a rally in the bank's stock price. Yet the move did not appear to be enough to stem an outflow of deposits, according to news reports.Still, many of Credit Suisse’s problems are unique and d...
Black Sea Drones Show U.S. Involvement in Conflict Against Russia, Says Kremlin
News

Black Sea Drones Show U.S. Involvement in Conflict Against Russia, Says Kremlin

(Reuters) - U.S. drone flights over the Baltic Sea are a sign of direct U.S. involvement in conflict with Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying on Sunday.Last week, a U.S. drone crashed into the sea after being intercepted by Russian Su-27 fighter planes in the first known direct military encounter between the two sides since Russia launched its war in Ukraine last year."It is quite obvious what these drones are doing, and their mission is not at all a peaceful mission to ensure the safety of shipping in international waters," Interfax news agency quoted Peskov as saying in a TV interview."And in fact, we are talking about the direct involvement of the operators of these drones in the conflict, and against us."The United States said the Russian planes harassed the...
Australia’s Victoria State Premier Condemns Nazi Salute
News

Australia’s Victoria State Premier Condemns Nazi Salute

SYDNEY (Reuters) - The premier of Australia's Victoria state condemned on Sunday Nazi salutes at a protest in the state capital Melbourne as an attempt "to scapegoat minorities" using "evil ideology".Transgender rights protesters clashed with neo-Nazis in Melbourne on Saturday after a British anti-transgender activist sought to address supporters at the city's parliament building, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.On Sunday, The Australian newspaper posted to Twitter an image of several men dressed in black performing a Nazi salute outside the parliament.Victoria's Premier Daniel Andrews said the anti-transgender activists had "gathered to spread hate" in the city."On the steps of our parliament, some of them performed a Nazi salute. They were there to say the trans community don't des...
Arkansas Ousts Defending Champ Kansas From March Madness
News

Arkansas Ousts Defending Champ Kansas From March Madness

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Kansas' national title defense ended in the second round of NCAA Tournament on Saturday when Arkansas' Ricky Council IV made five free throws in the closing seconds and the eighth-seeded Razorbacks beat the No. 1 seed Jayhawks 72-71.Davonte Davis scored 25 points and Council added 21 as Arkansas rallied from a 12-point second-half deficit. Kansas, playing without ailing coach Bill Self, became the second top seed not to escape the tournament's first weekend after Purdue lost on Friday night to No. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson.Arkansas and coach Eric Musselman return to the Sweet 16 for the third straight year. The Razorbacks will play either Saint Mary's or UConn in the West Region semifinals in Las Vegas on Thursday.Musselman and his players rushed to a second of...
Exclusive-Amid U.S. Pressure on Fentanyl, Mexico Raises Drug Lab Raids Data
News

Exclusive-Amid U.S. Pressure on Fentanyl, Mexico Raises Drug Lab Raids Data

By Drazen Jorgic, Jackie Botts and Stephen EisenhammerMEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's army has dramatically revised upward the number of drug lab raids it says it conducted under President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, according to government data and leaked military documents reviewed by Reuters.The documents, found among a trove of millions of emails leaked last year by the Guacamaya hacker group, show the upward revision being due to the army retroactively including hundreds of inactive labs on its seizures list under Lopez Obrador's presidency. Figures for the years of previous administrations were left unchanged.Mexico's army, in a response to a freedom of information request in February, now says it seized 635 synthetic drug labs during 2019, 2020 and 2021 - the first three years ...