Explainer-What next for Microsoft’s $69 billion Activision deal after UK ban?

By Paul Sandle LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on Wednesday blocked Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of ‘Call of Duty’ maker Activision Blizzard over concerns it would hinder cloud gaming. The ruling was a shock after the regulator had already resolved its concerns about the consoles market, a sector dominated by Sony’s…

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Iran says there were no school poisonings, blames foreign ‘enemies’

(Reuters) – Iran’s intelligence ministry on Friday accused foreign “enemies” and dissidents of fomenting fears over suspected poisonings of schoolgirls, saying its investigation found no actual poisoning. The wave of suspected attacks has affected thousands of schoolgirls and provoked public anger, after months of protests against Iran’s clerical rulers following the death of a young…

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Biden admin seeks to pause order blocking Obamacare preventive care mandate

By Brendan Pierson (Reuters) – The Biden administration has asked a federal appeals court to put on hold a judge’s ruling striking down the Affordable Care Act’s mandate that insurers cover preventive care, including screenings for certain cancers and pre-exposure prophylaxis against HIV (PrEP), at no extra cost to patients. In a filing Thursday evening…

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Migrants find tips on Chinese version of TikTok for long trek to U.S.-Mexico border

By Echo Wang and Mica Rosenberg FRONTON, Texas -Lihua Wu’s journey to the United States started when she scrolled past the words “The Route”, one of several common hashtags on Douyin, the Chinese counterpart of TikTok, advising migrants on the irregular overland trek across Latin America to the United States, also known online as “the…

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How Sudan’s military factions set path to war as mediation stalled

By Khalid Abdelaziz, Nafisa Eltahir and Aidan Lewis KHARTOUM (Reuters) -Alarmed that movements of rival military factions in Sudan could bring bloodshed, a group of mediators pushed for last-ditch talks between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and paramilitary commander General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo two weeks ago. But neither of Sudan’s two most powerful men showed…

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Highlights from the Fed review of SVB oversight

(Reuters) – The Federal Reserve issued a detailed and scathing assessment on Friday of its failures to identify problems and push for fixes at Silicon Valley Bank before the regional U.S. lender’s March 10 collapse, and called for stricter rules for banks. Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr called the review “unflinching,” describing the…

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Foreign tourism to Portugal has best first quarter ever

LISBON (Reuters) – The number of foreign tourists visiting Portugal surpassed 2.8 million from January through March, making it the best first quarter on record despite high global inflation and interest rates, data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) showed on Friday. Measuring only foreigners staying in Portuguese hotels, the number by far topped 1.8…

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