Israel in spotlight at Eurovision semi-final as pro-Palestinian protests LOOM

By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen MALMO, Sweden (Reuters) –The second semi-final of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest will take place in Sweden on Thursday, with Israel’s performance expected to draw attention due to large pro-Palestinian protests planned in host city Malmo. Some 100,000 visitors have gathered in the southern Swedish city for the annual kitsch-fest, which is…

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Billionaire investor Ken Griffin calls on Harvard to embrace ‘Western values’

(Reuters) -Billionaire investor Kenneth Griffin called on his alma mater Harvard University on Saturday to embrace “Western values”, saying that the turmoil across college campuses was the product of a “cultural revolution” in U.S. education. Griffin, founder of U.S. hedge fund Citadel, told the Financial Times in an interview that the U.S. had “lost sight…

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Microsoft hit with $242 million US verdict in Cortana patent lawsuit

By Blake Brittain (Reuters) – Microsoft must pay patent owner IPA Technologies $242 million, a federal jury in Delaware said on Friday after determining that Microsoft’s Cortana virtual-assistant software infringed an IPA patent. The jury agreed with IPA after a week-long trial that Microsoft’s voice-recognition technology violates IPA’s patent rights in computer-communications software. IPA is…

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