News

China's CATL Enacts 'Closed Loop Management' at Factory to Fight COVID

Chinese battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology has implemented a so-called “closed-loop management” system at its main factory to keep production going as the country battles an Omicron wave of the coronavirus. The southern Chinese city of Ningde, where CATL is headquartered, has tightened prevention and control efforts because of a spate of COVID-19 cases, the […]

Exclusive-Senior EU Officials Were Targeted with Israeli Spyware-Sources

Senior officials at the European Commission were targeted last year with spy software designed by an Israeli surveillance firm, according to two EU officials and documentation reviewed by Reuters. Among them was Didier Reynders, a senior Belgian statesman who has served as the European Justice Commissioner since 2019, according to one of the documents. At […]

Congress Selects Lawmakers to Hammer out Deal on Semiconductor Chips Funding

U.S. House and Senate lawmakers said Thursday they have chosen negotiators to hammer out a deal on a bill to provide $52 billion in government subsidies for semiconductor production after months of discussion. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, and Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy named about 80 House lawmakers including the chairs and top […]

Canada Creates Carbon-Capture Incentives, Critical Mineral Plan to Cut Emissions

Canada will offer a substantial incentive to companies that invest in carbon-capture technologies and will set aside as much as C$3.8 billion ($3 billion) over eight years to accelerate critical mineral exploration, extraction and processing as it seeks to cut carbon emissions. In this year’s budget presented on Thursday, Canada is introducing a 60 percent […]

'Tip of the Iceberg': Taiwan's Spy Catchers Hunt Chinese Poachers of Chip Talent

Taiwan’s spy catchers have launched probes into around 100 Chinese companies suspected of illegally poaching semiconductor engineers and other tech talent, a senior official at the island’s Investigation Bureau told Reuters. That comes on top of seven prosecuted since the start of last year and includes 27 which have either been raided or whose owners […]

China Uses AI Software to Improve its Surveillance Capabilities

Dozens of Chinese firms have built software that uses artificial intelligence to sort data collected on residents, amid high demand from authorities seeking to upgrade their surveillance tools, a Reuters review of government documents shows. According to more than 50 publicly available documents examined by Reuters, dozens of entities in China have over the past […]

New Lithium Technology can Help the World Go Green -- if It Works

Rio Tinto, General Motors and even the U.S. Energy Department are investing heavily in a crop of newer technologies that could revolutionize the way lithium is produced for electric vehicle batteries. Now those technologies just have to prove they work on a commercial scale. If they do, miners will be able to boost global lithium […]

Yellen Says U.S. Crypto Rules Should Support Innovation, Manage Risks

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Thursday crypto asset regulations should support responsible innovation while managing risks, sticking to the contours of a recent White House executive order that was well-received by the crypto market. In a speech on digital assets policy released by the Treasury, Yellen said that in many cases regulators already […]

Like Tesla, Toyota Develops Self-Driving Tech with Low-Cost Cameras

Toyota Motor Corp unit Woven Planet is following the lead of Tesla Inc in trying to advance self-driving technology with low-cost cameras. Woven Planet told Reuters it is able to use cameras to collect data and effectively train its self-driving system, a “breakthrough” that it hopes will help drive down costs and scale up the […]