US senators unveil AI policy roadmap, seek government funding boost
By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bipartisan group of U.S. senators, including Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, called on Wednesday for a big jump in government research funding of artificial intelligence as they debate new legal safeguard...
13h ago
Mona Lisa's mysterious background decrypted by art-loving geologist
By Alex Fraser LECCO, Italy (Reuters) - Over 500 years after Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa, an academic believes she has unravelled the mystery about the backdrop to one of the world's most famous works of art. Art historians have long de...
15h ago
More than half of Zimbabwean population will need food aid, cabinet says
By Nyasha Chingono HARARE (Reuters) - More than half of Zimbabwe's population will need food aid this year following a devastating drought that led to widespread crop failure as humanitarian organisations seek funding to save many from hunger, the ...
15h ago
China calls for stepped-up energy-efficiency plans to meet targets
By Colleen Howe BEIJING (Reuters) - China's state planner has ordered provinces to develop energy-efficiency plans for entities accounting for about 70% of consumption and carbon emissions by 2025-end, according to a notice, to meet targets that ha...
15h ago
Algeria to produce 3.7 million cubic meters of desalinated water per day by end of 2024
ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algeria will produce 3.7 million cubic meters per day of desalinated water by the end of 2024, which will cover 42% of the needs of the population estimated at 47 million, the CEO of Algerian Energy Company (AEC) Mohamed Boutabb...
15h ago
Taiwan drag queens bring their glamour to presidential office celebrating RuPaul win
By Ben Blanchard TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwanese drag queen Nymphia Wind celebrated last month's win on RuPaul's Drag Race by staging a riotous, emotional performance at Taiwan's presidential office on Wednesday in front of President Tsai Ing-wen. Tsa...
16h ago
Indonesia searches for 35 still missing in deadly Sumatra floods
JAKARTA (Reuters) - The search for 35 people who are still missing from flash floods and mud slides in Indonesia's West Sumatra province continued on Wednesday, authorities said, as the death toll from the weekend disaster rose to 58. Heavy rain on...
16h ago
Kenya Red Cross says responding to landslide in area in centre of country
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya Red Cross said personnel are responding to a landslide that left several people unaccounted for in a region in the central part of the country where there has been heavy rain. The landslide occurred in Kimende Escarpment, ...
16h ago
Miniature poodle Sage fetches top prize at Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show
By Eduardo Munoz NEW YORK (Reuters) - A miniature poodle named Sage was crowned "Best in Show" on Tuesday at the 148th annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, fetching the grand prize in the most prestigious competition among pure-bred canines in ...
18h ago
US Capitol riot's shadow looms over Maryland, West Virginia primaries
By Makini Brice and Richard Cowan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than three years have passed since former President Donald Trump's supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, trying to overturn his election defeat, but the event will play a ...
20h ago
US State Dept moves $1 billion weapons aid for Israel to congressional review, official says
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department has moved a $1 billion package of weapons aid for Israel into the congressional review process, two U.S. officials said on Tuesday. The latest weapons package includes tank rounds, mortars and armore...
21h ago
Wing of Trump's plane hit a corporate jet at West Palm Beach airport, source says
(Reuters) - The wing of former U.S. President Donald Trump's plane, a Boeing 757, hit a corporate jet while taxiing at West Palm Beach International Airport on Sunday, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday. The Trump campaign di...
22h ago
US says Boeing breached 2021 deferred prosecution 737 MAX agreement
(Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department said late on Tuesday that Boeing Co had breached its obligations in a 2021 agreement that shielded the planemaker from criminal prosecution over fatal 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019. The Justice Department ...
23h ago
Biden would veto Israel assistance bill if it passes
(Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden would veto a bill on Israel security assistance in Congress if it passes, the White House said on Tuesday. (Reporting by Costas Pitas and Dan Whitcomb)
May 14, 2024
Petrobras resists order to assess Indigenous impact of Amazon drilling
By Fabio Teixeira and Marta Nogueira RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil's state-run oil firm Petrobras is resisting regulatory demands requiring it to assess the impact on Indigenous groups of drilling in an offshore basin near the mouth of the Amaz...
May 14, 2024
Explainer-Canada wildfire season is heating up: Here's what to know
By Nia Williams (Reuters) - Firefighters in western Canada are battling the first major wildfires of 2024, which sparked into life after unseasonably warm temperatures and an ongoing drought left forests tinder-dry. Wildfire season in Canada typica...
May 14, 2024
Asia's extreme April heat worsened by climate change, scientists say
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Extreme temperatures throughout Asia last month were made worse - and more likely - as a result of human-driven climate change, a team of international scientists said on Wednesday. Billions of people across the continent were...
May 14, 2024
Investigators say cargo ship that hit Maryland bridge lost electric power several times before incident
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal investigators said on Tuesday the Dali cargo ship lost electrical power several times including the day before it crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26, killing six people. The National Transportation ...
May 14, 2024
Wildfire forces evacuation of four suburbs of western Canada oil town
(Reuters) - People in four suburbs of the Canadian oil sands city of Fort McMurray in Alberta were ordered to evacuate on Tuesday due to an approaching wildfire, the local authority said. The huge fire has gradually been moving closer to the city a...
May 14, 2024
US FDIC's Gruenberg to create office to address workplace conduct issues
By Douglas Gillison and Pete Schroeder WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation plans to tell Congress he will establish a new, independent office devoted to professional conduct after an external review found co...
May 14, 2024
US appeals court upholds biofuel blending mandates for 2020-2022
By Stephanie Kelly (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday upheld a rule from President Joe Biden's administration that set the amount of biofuels that oil refiners were required to blend into the nation's fuel mix from 2020 through 2022, rejec...
May 14, 2024
Summer 2023 was the hottest in 2,000 years, study says
By Gloria Dickie LONDON (Reuters) - Last summer, as wildfires swept across the Mediterranean, roads buckled in Texas and heatwaves strained power grids in China, it was not just the warmest summer on record, but the hottest one in some 2,000 years,...
May 14, 2024
White House's Sullivan to travel to Saudi Arabia and Israel
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan plans to travel to Saudi Arabia and Israel this weekend, a U.S. official said on Tuesday as Israeli tanks pushed deeper into eastern Rafah, stoking fears of additional civil...
May 14, 2024
Pentagon leaker Jack Teixeira faces US military justice hearing
By Nate Raymond HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Massachusetts (Reuters) - Jack Teixeira, a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard who pleaded guilty to leaking classified military documents on topics including the war in Ukraine, is slated to appea...
May 14, 2024
Maryland sets course for offshore wind energy expansion with new legislation
(Reuters) - Maryland Governor Wes Moore signed a bill aimed at reevaluating and potentially revising existing offshore wind project plans, setting the stage for the state's goal of achieving 8,500 megawatts of offshore wind energy capacity by 2031....
May 14, 2024