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SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Wednesday that he had raised the recent deadly outage at Singapore Telecommunications-owned Optus with his Singaporean counterpart, Lawrence Wong. After meeting Albanese in Australia's capital Canberra, Wong said he expected Singtel and Optus to "behave responsibly" and comply with domestic laws, adding both companies will fully support the ongoing inquiry into the outage. Four deaths have been linked to an outage last month in Australia after emergency calls were disrupted. (Reporting by Renju Jose in Sydney; Editing by Tom Hogue)

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By Abhirup Roy and Harshita Mary Varghese (Reuters) -Tesla rolled out "affordable" versions of its best-selling Model Y SUV and its Model 3 sedan, but the starting prices of $39,990 and $36,990 were too high, some said, to attract a new class of buyers to the electric vehicle brand. CEO Elon Musk has touted the car as a way to tap a wider swath of buyers, saying last year that a price below $30,000, after incentives, was the key. Tesla is trying to reverse falling sales of its aging lineup amid rising competition in Europe and China, and the loss of a $7,500 U.S. tax credit. The new cars drop some premium finishes and features but offer driving ranges above 300 miles (480 km). Tesla's stock closed down 4.5% and Tesla bull Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush, said he was disappointed the cars were only about $5,000 cheaper than the next-level trims of the models. The new Standard versions cost more than the cheapest U.S. models in September, when the now-expired tax credit was included. Musk has for years promised mass-market vehicles, though last year he canceled plans for an all-new $25,000 EV, Reuters first reported. Instead, he chose to build lower-priced versions based on Tesla's current models, sparking concerns among investors and analysts that the cheaper cars would cannibalize sales of existing vehicles and limit growth. "It's basically a pricing lever and not much of a product catalyst," said Shay Boloor, chief market strategist at research firm Futurum Equities. "I don't see it as unlocking new demand at scale." Fearing a drop in demand after losing the tax credits, some automakers in the U.S. have already cut prices while some others have figured out mechanisms to effectively extend the benefit of the incentives. Investors and analysts said dropping the price below $40,000 will help drive sales as the latest offerings compete next year with Chevrolet's Equinox, Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia's EV4. Some, though, expected a bigger slash by Tesla to below $30,000. "I just don't know that this is enough," said Shawn Campbell, an advisor at Camelthorn Investments. "Longer term, this news doesn't solve the problem posed by lower cost Chinese competitors in global markets. In my opinion, Tesla needs a sub-30k EV." In Europe, where Musk's far-right political views have undermined brand loyalty, the new entries will be up against more than a dozen electric and plug-in-hybrid models with price tags below $30,000. Sales in the September-ending quarter rose to a record as consumers rushed to take advantage of the EV tax credit before its expiration on September 30, but expectations are that they will slow down for the rest of the year, unless the affordable car comes to the rescue. "The desire to buy the car is very high. (It's) just (that) people don't have enough money in the bank account to buy it," Musk said in July during Tesla's second-quarter earnings call. "So the more affordable we can make the car, the better." 'A WALMART HOODIE' FOR TESLA Both Standard versions offer 321 miles (516 km) of range and less powerful acceleration than the current higher trims, called Premium. Tesla has reduced the size of the battery on both cars, according to its website and some influencers who got a preview. Both cars can be ordered immediately, with deliveries set to start between December 2025 and January 2026 for many locations, Tesla's website showed.  The Standard versions do not come with Autosteer, Tesla's driver assistance system, touchscreens and seat heating for rear passengers. Tesla has also removed the LED lightbar in the cheaper Model Y. Both come with manually adjusted side-view mirrors and textile seats, with vegan leather available for the Model 3.  Musk has been pivoting the company toward artificial intelligence, focusing on robotaxis and humanoid robots, but the new cars are key to hopes of near-term revenue growth. "For the market, this is Tesla dropping its Steve Jobs turtleneck and slipping into a Walmart hoodie," said Michael Ashley Schulman, chief investment officer at Running Point. "It's no longer the cool rebel at the edge of innovation – it's the establishment trying to play both Tesla and Toyota at once." (Reporting by Abhirup Roy in San Francisco and Akash Sriram and Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Henderson, Richard Chang, Sriraj Kalluvila, Alan Barona and Lincoln Feast.)

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SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazilian internet provider Desktop confirmed on Tuesday that it had held preliminary talks about a transaction with telecom operator Claro, following a media report that it could soon be acquired by Claro. Desktop, which specializes in fiber optic internet, said in a securities filing the discussions for a "potential transaction" were non-binding and no agreement had been reached on price, structure or other key terms so far. News outlet Brazil Journal reported earlier in the day that Claro was in "advanced talks" for a full takeover that would take Desktop private. News of the potential acquisition sent Desktop shares surging as much as 16% in Sao Paulo on Tuesday, before they settled 10% higher. In contrast, Brazil's benchmark Bovespa stock index fell 1.6%. Brazil Journal reported, citing two sources, that Claro was conducting due diligence but had not yet submitted a binding offer. Claro is owned by Mexican telecommunications firm America Movil, which declined to comment. This is not the first time Desktop has been an acquisition target. In 2024, Claro rival Telefonica Brasil also held talks with the internet provider about a potential purchase. Meanwhile, America Movil and Chilean firm Entel are weighing a joint offer for Telefonica's operations in Chile, they said on Monday. (Reporting by Andre Romani; additional reporting by Luciana Magalhaes in Sao Paulo and Cassandra Garrison in Mexico City; Editing by Kylie Madry, Natalia Siniawski and Jamie Freed)

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(Reuters) -Toymaker Mattel is partnering with OpenAI to test the ChatGPT maker's artificial-intelligence video model Sora 2, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said at the company's Developer Day conference on Monday. "Mattel has been a great partner working with us to test Sora 2 in the API (application programming interface) and see what they can do to bring product ideas to life more quickly. So one of their designers can now start with a sketch and then turn these early concepts into something that you can see and share and react to," Altman said. Monday's moves are the latest in a stream of announcements for OpenAI, which sparked the modern AI boom with the launch of ChatGPT about three years ago. Many of CEO Sam Altman's ambitions are bold and expensive, even by Silicon Valley standards, sparking some concern among tech investors about whether or not AI investments are a bubble. (Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru, Deepa Seetharaman and Kenrick Cai in San Francisco; Editing by Pooja Desai)

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(Reuters) -Elon Musk's xAI is raising more financing than initially planned, including an equity investment from Nvidia, to bring its ongoing funding round to $20 billion, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing people with knowledge of the matter. The financing, which includes equity and debt, will be tied to the Nvidia graphics processing units that xAI plans to use in Colossus 2, according to Bloomberg. Reuters could not immediately verify the report. (Reporting by Chandni Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)

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By AJ Vicens (Reuters) -Qilin, a ransomware group with a track record of cyberattacks on major entities around the world, claimed responsibility on Tuesday for a hack on Japan's Asahi Group Holdings that disrupted production at the beer and beverage giant. Asahi Group's beer-making subsidiary, Asahi Breweries, said on Monday it had restarted production at its six Japanese beer plants on October 2. It first said it had been hacked on September 29. Qilin, which operates a ransomware-as-a-service platform that allows users to carry out attacks in exchange for a percentage of extortion proceeds, posted 29 images to its website on Tuesday of what the group claims to be internal Asahi Group documents.  The group claims to have stolen more than 9,300 files, or roughly 27 gigabytes of data, according to the entry on its website. Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity of the documents.  An Asahi Group Holdings spokesperson said in an email late Tuesday that the matter was still under investigation and the company declined to comment on Qilin's claims, or any details about extortion demands or negotiations.  Qilin did not respond to a request for comment. Qilin has been a prolific ransomware service since first emerging in 2022 with 870 claimed attacks, according to data compiled by , a cybercrime research platform. The group was behind the June 2024 hack of British diagnostic services provider Synnovis, which officials said in June 2025 contributed to the death of a London hospital patient. (Reporting by AJ Vicens in Detroit; Additional reporting by Raphael Satter in Washington and James Pearson in London; Editing by Sharon Singleton and Jamie Freed)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Washington field office is investigating a series of alleged infiltrations of prominent U.S. law firms by Chinese hackers, the New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing two people briefed on the matter. One of those firms, Williams & Connolly, told Reuters that hackers had gained access to some of its computer systems, but didn't cite China as the source of the attacks. Williams & Connolly said a small number of its attorney email accounts were accessed "by leveraging what is known as a zero-day attack." "Importantly, there is no evidence that confidential client data was extracted from any other part of our I.T. system, including from databases where client files are stored," the firm said. It said it had taken steps to block the threat, adding that there is no evidence of any unauthorized traffic on its network. The FBI and the Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comments. U.S. officials have complained about China-linked hacking activity for decades, alleging that many of the attacks are focused on stealing intellectual property belonging to American companies. (Reporting by Jasper Ward; Editing by Don Durfee and Tom Hogue)

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By Max A. Cherney SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -Intel plans to release technical details about its forthcoming chip for laptops, known as Panther Lake, on Thursday, four sources briefed on the plans told Reuters. It is part of an effort to reassure investors about Intel's first product made entirely using its next-generation manufacturing process called 18A, the sources said. The Panther Lake chips are the company's high-end mobile processors that are typically included in more expensive laptops and are the first high-volume Intel products to use the 18A process that the company has spent billions developing. In part because of manufacturing stumbles, Intel has steadily ceded laptop and PC market share to rival Advanced Micro Devices. Panther Lake represents an opportunity to reverse some of the losses. The company conducted hours of technical briefings and factory tours in Arizona for industry analysts last week on the new Panther Lake microarchitecture, including detailed explanations of the graphics and central processor cores and its media engine, according to the sources. Intel revealed a redesigned AI engine and the company's efficiency and performance processor cores, which were redesigned for the 18A manufacturing process. The last-generation laptop chip called Lunar Lake was primarily made by Intel rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Intel executives have said the Panther Lake chips will be available early in 2026, according to the sources. The new chips use 30% less energy than the prior generation, and its graphics and central processors will receive a 50% boost in their ability to crunch data in some situations, according to a second source briefed on the chips. The technical briefings conducted last week for a group of analysts and journalists underscored the importance of Panther Lake's success to Intel, which has struggled to manufacture the cutting-edge chips.  An Intel spokesperson said the company holds technical briefings in the autumn most years on various topics but declined to comment further. In July, the chipmaker reported a second-quarter loss of $2.9 billion and disclosed that if it did not secure a customer for its planned future 14A manufacturing process, it would suspend work on it. After U.S. President Donald Trump called for the resignation of Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan in August, Intel attracted investments from SoftBank Group and Nvidia.  After Tan met with Trump and other officials in the White House, the administration worked out a deal to transform a CHIPS Act grant into a 9.9% equity stake in the company. Last week, as part of the briefings, Intel conducted a tour for reporters and industry analysts of its factories in Arizona, including one called Fab 52, the people said. Intel broke ground on Fab 52 in 2021 as part of former CEO Pat Gelsinger's multibillion-dollar global expansion plan to compete with TSMC in the contract manufacturing business. Fab 52 houses Intel's 18A in-house manufacturing process, which includes a new transistor design and a method of delivering energy to the chip more efficiently. The tour aimed to demonstrate Intel's manufacturing prowess and show off the chip factory, or fab, that it will use for high-volume manufacturing of Panther Lake chips. Reuters did not attend this tour.   Intel executives did not discuss the current Panther Lake yields, or the number of good chips that Intel is capable of producing, according to the people. Reuters reported in August that over the summer the Panther Lake yield was roughly 10%, up from 5% late last year. (Reporting by Max A. Cherney in San Francisco; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

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By Abhirup Roy and Harshita Mary Varghese (Reuters) -Tesla rolled out "affordable" versions of its best-selling Model Y SUV and its Model 3 sedan, but the starting prices of $39,990 and $36,990 were too high, some said, to attract a new class of buyers to the electric vehicle brand. CEO Elon Musk has touted the car as a way to tap a wider swath of buyers, saying last year that a price below $30,000, after incentives, was the key. Tesla is trying to reverse falling sales of its aging lineup amid rising competition in Europe and China, and the loss of a $7,500 U.S. tax credit. The new cars drop some premium finishes and features but offer driving ranges above 300 miles. Tesla's stock closed down 4.5% and Tesla bull Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush, said he was disappointed that the cars were only about $5,000 cheaper than the next-level trims of the models. The new Standard versions cost more than the cheapest U.S. models in September, when the now-expired tax credit was included. Musk has for years promised mass-market vehicles, though last year he canceled plans for an all-new $25,000 EV, Reuters first reported. Instead, he chose to build lower-priced versions based on Tesla's current models, sparking concerns among investors and analysts that the cheaper cars would cannibalize sales of existing vehicles and limit growth. "It's basically a pricing lever and not much of a product catalyst," said Shay Boloor, chief market strategist at research firm Futurum Equities. "I don't see it as unlocking new demand at scale." Fearing a drop in demand after losing the tax credits, some automakers in the U.S. have already cut prices while some others have figured out mechanisms to effectively extend the benefit of the incentives. Investors and analysts said dropping the price below $40,000 will help drive sales as the latest offerings compete next year with Chevrolet's Equinox, Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia's EV4. Some, though, expected a bigger slash by Tesla to below $30,000. "I just don't know that this is enough," said Shawn Campbell, an advisor at Camelthorn Investments. "Longer term, this news doesn't solve the problem posed by lower cost Chinese competitors in global markets. In my opinion, Tesla needs a sub-30k EV." In Europe, where Musk's far-right political views have undermined brand loyalty, the new entries will be up against more than a dozen electric and plug-in-hybrid models with price tags below $30,000. Sales in the September-ending quarter rose to a record as consumers rushed to take advantage of the EV tax credit before its expiration on September 30, but expectations are that they will slow down for the rest of the year, unless the affordable car comes to the rescue. "The desire to buy the car is very high. (It's) just (that) people don't have enough money in the bank account to buy it," Musk said in July during Tesla's second-quarter earnings call. "So the more affordable we can make the car, the better." 'A WALMART HOODIE' FOR TESLA Both Standard versions offer 321 miles (516 km) of range and less powerful acceleration than the current higher trims called Premium. They can be ordered immediately, with deliveries set to start between December 2025 and January 2026 for many locations, Tesla's website showed. The Standard versions do not come with Autosteer, Tesla's driver assistance system, or touchscreens for rear passengers. Tesla has also removed the LED lightbar in the cheaper Model Y. Both come with textile seats, with vegan leather available for the Model 3, and manually adjusted side-view mirrors. "For the market, this is Tesla dropping its Steve Jobs turtleneck and slipping into a Walmart hoodie," said Michael Ashley Schulman, chief investment officer at Running Point. "It's no longer the cool rebel at the edge of innovation – it's the establishment trying to play both Tesla and Toyota at once." Musk has been pivoting the company toward artificial intelligence, focusing on robotaxis and humanoid robots. Affordable cars will also be key to Tesla delivering 20 million vehicles over the next decade – one of the several operational and valuation milestones set by the company's board as part of its proposed $1 trillion pay package for Musk. (Reporting by Abhirup Roy in San Francisco and Akash Sriram and Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Henderson, Richard Chang, Sriraj Kalluvila and Alan Barona)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Washington field office is investigating a series of alleged infiltration of prominent U.S. law firms by Chinese hackers, the New York Times reported on Tuesday. One of those firms, Williams & Connolly, told clients that Chinese hackers had infiltrated some of its computer systems, the newspaper reported, citing two people briefed on the matter. The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Reporting by Jasper Ward)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)