By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Amazon’s $1.7 billion acquisition of robot vacuum cleaner maker iRobot may reduce competition and strengthen Amazon’s position as online marketplace provider, EU antitrust regulators warned on Thursday. The European Commission opened a full-scale investigation and will decide by November 15 whether to clear or block the deal. “We continue…
By Emma Farge GENEVA (Reuters) – Nadine, a social robot powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) with human-like gestures and expressions, could have an important future role to play in tending to the sick and elderly, according to a professor who helped invent it. Nadia Magnenat Thalmann, a robot expert from the University of Geneva, who…
By Renee Maltezou and Lefteris Papadimas ATHENS (Reuters) -Greece’s re-elected Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Thursday pledged his conservative government would “fix the sins of the past” and over the next four years cut taxes, boost wages and pensions, and repay bailout debts earlier than expected. Mitsotakis, 55, won 158 sets in the 300-seat parliament…
By Shreyashi Sanyal (Reuters) -European shares slumped to their lowest level in three months on Thursday, as heightened concerns about further interest rate hikes globally dented risk sentiment, while shares of Embracer group slid after a discounted share issue. The pan-European STOXX 600 index deepened losses by the close to fall 2.3% to its lowest…
By Joice Alves LONDON (Reuters) – A lack of clarity on Beijing’s planned stimulus measures will mean a mixed appetite for European stocks over the rest of 2023, investors say, with China the EU’s third biggest export market. From high-end cars to luxury watches, Europe’s consumer discretionary and staples, technology, industrials and materials sectors all…
By Guy Faulconbridge MINSK (Reuters) – Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Thursday that he would have a veto over any use of the tactical nuclear weapons that Russia is stationing on his territory, and goaded the West’s spies for missing the transport of the warheads. President Vladimir Putin, who rules the world’s biggest nuclear…
(Reuters) – Automaker Stellantis N.V. and Canada-based miner NioCorp Developments Ltd on Thursday signed an offtake term sheet with the objective of establishing a supply deal for rare earth minerals critical to electrical vehicles. The preliminary agreement establishes a 10-year offtake contract for minerals like neodymium-praseodymium oxide, dysprosium oxide, and terbium oxide that NioCorp aims…
By Andrew Gray and Niklas Pollard BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Sweden failed on Thursday to convince Turkey to lift its block on Stockholm’s path to NATO membership, and the issue will now go to a meeting of the Turkish and Swedish leaders next week. Speaking after talks with the Turkish and Swedish foreign ministers at the security…
LONDON (Reuters) – Meta, the company behind social media giants Facebook and Instagram, has launched its new microblogging platform Threads. WHAT IS THREADS? The new app bears a striking resemblance to Twitter, allowing users to post text, images, or videos, as well as like, share, or repost content. Threads accounts are synched to Instagram at…
MILAN (Reuters) – Generali has agreed to buy Connecticut-based asset manager Conning Holdings as part of a partnership with Cathay Life, a unit of Taiwan’s Cathay Financial Holding, the Italian insurer said on Thursday. The deal, structured as an exchange of assets without a cash consideration, realises Generali CEO Philippe Donnet’s ambition of expanding into…
