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AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -The Netherlands' Economy Minister on Tuesday said he had spoken to his Chinese counterpart about Nexperia BV, the Dutch computer chip maker the Dutch government seized control of last month. China, where most of Nexperia's chips are packaged and sold, responded by blocking exports, alarming European carmakers that rely on its chips. Vincent Karremans said in a statement he had spoken to Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao and they discussed "further steps toward reaching a solution" to the impasse that would serve the interests of the company and the Chinese and European economies. Meanwhile Nexperia's business in China has begun to assert its independence, telling employees they can reject "external instructions".  Nexperia is a subsidiary of Shanghai-listed Wingtech .  (Reporting by Toby SterlingEditing by Tomasz Janowski)

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AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -The Netherlands' Economy Minister on Tuesday said he had spoken to his Chinese counterpart about Nexperia BV, the Dutch computer chip maker the Dutch government seized control of last month. China, where most of Nexperia's chips are packaged and sold, responded by blocking exports, alarming European carmakers that rely on its chips. Vincent Karremans said in a statement he had spoken to Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao and they discussed "further steps toward reaching a solution" to the impasse that would serve the interests of the company and the Chinese and European economies. (Reporting by Toby SterlingEditing by Tomasz Janowski)

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By Svea Herbst-Bayliss NEW YORK (Reuters) -Starboard Value CEO Jeff Smith said Tuesday TripAdvisor should consider selling its restaurant booking platform TheFork. Smith, who was speaking at an invite-only conference in New York, said TripAdvisor had an "amazing" brand, but "there is a huge opportunity to transform and reimagine the user experience to improve revenue growth." His hedge fund is pressing for change at the travel booking site after building a 9% stake in the company earlier this year.  "TripAdvisor is too cheap for a company that is growing," he said.  (Reporting by Svea Herbst. Editing by Dawn Kopecki and Chizu Nomiyama )

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(Reuters) -Playtech shares fell by more than 38% on Tuesday after rival Evolution said it would add the UK gaming firm to a defamation lawsuit, alleging one of its subsidiaries commissioned a 2021 report meant to damage its reputation and business operations. Responding to Evolution's statement, Playtech rejected the allegations, stating that the suggestion it was "engaged in a smear campaign is wholly untrue". By 1222 GMT, Playtech shares were down 29.5%, leading fallers on London's FTSE 250 index. Evolution was up around 1% in Stockholm. (Reporting by Danilo Masoni; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)

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(Reuters) -Playtech shares fell by more than 38% on Tuesday after rival Evolution said it would add the UK gaming firm to a defamation lawsuit, alleging one of its subsidiaries commissioned a 2021 report meant to damage its reputation and business operations. Responding to Evolution's statement, Playtech rejected the allegations, stating that the suggestion it was "engaged in a smear campaign is wholly untrue". By 1222 GMT, Playtech shares were down 29.5%, leading fallers on London's FTSE 250 index. Evolution was up around 1% in Stockholm. (Reporting by Danilo Masoni; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)

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By Alessandro Parodi AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -The Dutch data regulator on Tuesday warned voters against using AI chatbots ahead of the national election, saying the platforms give unreliable advice and push them towards two major parties on opposite ends of the political spectrum. While 15 different parties hold seats in the 150-member Dutch parliament at present, chatbots told voters in 56% of cases to choose between the far-right Freedom Party or the Labour-Green Left coalition. The parties are on track to take 20% and 16% of the vote on October 29, respectively, according to opinion polls. "Chatbots may seem like clever tools, but as a voting aid, they consistently fail," the Dutch data protection watchdog's vice-chair Monique Verdier said in a statement, describing their operation as "unclear and difficult to verify". The agency said it had tested four major chatbots, without disclosing which ones, and found that even when fed the campaign platform of a smaller party, the chatbots still advised voting for one of the two major parties in some of the cases. The election is taking place months after the Freedom Party's exit triggered the collapse of the right-wing coalition, which did not include the Labour or Green parties, and is seen as a contest between either a new all-conservative government or a more centrist or centre-right coalition.  The EU member is led by a minority caretaker government. The watchdog did not say how many Dutch voters it thinks are using chatbots for voting advice but said there was a "growing number". Over 13 million people are eligible to vote in the election. (Reporting by Alessandro Parodi and Toby Sterling; Editing by Muvija M)

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By Alessandro Parodi AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -The Dutch data regulator on Tuesday warned voters against using AI chatbots ahead of the national election, saying the platforms give unreliable advice and push them towards two major parties on opposite ends of the political spectrum. While 15 different parties hold seats in the 150-member Dutch parliament at present, chatbots told voters in 56% of cases to choose between the far-right Freedom Party or the Labour-Green Left coalition. The parties are on track to take 20% and 16% of the vote on October 29, respectively, according to opinion polls. "Chatbots may seem like clever tools, but as a voting aid, they consistently fail," the Dutch data protection watchdog's vice-chair Monique Verdier said in a statement, describing their operation as "unclear and difficult to verify". The agency said it had tested four major chatbots, without disclosing which ones, and found that even when fed the campaign platform of a smaller party, the chatbots still advised voting for one of the two major parties in some of the cases. The election is taking place months after the Freedom Party's exit triggered the collapse of the right-wing coalition, which did not include the Labour or Green parties, and is seen as a contest between either a new all-conservative government or a more centrist or centre-right coalition.  The EU member is led by a minority caretaker government. The watchdog did not say how many Dutch voters it thinks are using chatbots for voting advice but said there was a "growing number". Over 13 million people are eligible to vote in the election. (Reporting by Alessandro Parodi and Toby Sterling; Editing by Muvija M)

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Berlin (dpa) – Newborn babies should be given a genomic sequencing check to assess their vulnerability for hundreds of diseases, according to a team of Australian scientists and doctors. "Adding genomic sequencing to newborn blood screening would detect hundreds of additional childhood conditions, providing much earlier diagnosis and treatment," the researchers say.  Babies in Australia are sometimes given a heel-prick blood test to check for up to 32 conditions, but the genomic sequencing, which could be done as part of the blood screening, not only "reveals a person’s entire genetic make-up" but could throw up "results for hundreds of treatable conditions" within about two weeks of birth. From the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) and Victorian Clinical Genetics Services (VCGS), the team point out that because the genome is "for life," it can be re-examined later in life to check for any "health issue." The team's research took in 1,000 newborns in Victoria, who were checked for "variants in 605 genes associated with early-onset, severe, treatable conditions." "Newborn screening for rare conditions is one of the most effective public health interventions," says Zornitza Stark of the MCRI and VCGS. Widespread deployment of the screening, which can be done in tandem with the current blood sampling system, could prove to be lifesaving as more babies are rapidly diagnosed and treated, the team says in the paper published in journal Nature Medicine.  "Our study demonstrates the feasibility of clinically accredited genomic newborn screening, using a scalable model that is highly acceptable to parents," the team says in the paper. The following information is not intended for publication dpa spr arw

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(Reuters) -Crypto heavyweight Coinbase said on Tuesday it has bought investment platform Echo in a nearly $375 million cash-and-stock deal, aiming to bring fundraising tools to its platform. Dealmaking within the digital assets industry has picked up pace this year as a crypto-friendly Trump administration encourages companies to expand their business in the U.S. Last week, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken unveiled a $100 million deal for futures exchange Small Exchange, paving the way to launch a fully U.S.-based derivatives suite. Echo's platform makes raising capital and investing more accessible to the crypto community through private and public token sales. "We want to create more accessible, efficient, and transparent capital markets," Coinbase said in a blog post. While Coinbase will start with crypto token sales via Echo's Sonar platform, the company later plans on expanding support to tokenized securities and real-world assets. Echo was founded by crypto trader Jordan Fish, widely known by his "Cobie" pseudonym. The platform has helped crypto projects raise more than $200 million since its launch two years ago. In May, Coinbase had struck a $2.9 billion deal for crypto options provider Deribit, plugging a gap in its derivatives portfolio and strengthening its international presence. (Reporting by Arasu Kannagi Basil in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)

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Nicolas Will, logistics specialist at a scientific publisher, likes athletics and cooking when he isn't at work. And he stutters. But he tries to see this holistically and finds exercises help. Stuttgart (dpa) – "My name is Nnnnnicolas Will, I am 32 years old, I was born here in Wwwwwwweinheim and also gggggrew up here," Nicolas Will introduces himself. He's sitting in his kitchen of his apartment in Weinheim, a small town in southern Germany. Will has stuttered since he was a child. He has worked with speech therapists for years and practises daily to speak more fluently. "I try not to perceive my speech as a deficit, but as part of who I am," he says. Around 1% of people stutter, just under 840,000 people in Germany says the German Stuttering and Self-Help Association. The proportion is significantly higher in childhood: around 5% of girls and boys stutter, but 70% to 80% of them grow out of it. Stuttering is a speech disorder that is mainly genetic in origin, say medics. Will's stuttering began when he was a toddler – when he started speaking two or three sentences in a row, he says. He would get stuck on words and repeat syllables. The paediatrician tested his speech and referred him to a speech therapist. He practised regularly with the speech therapist over a long period of time – but without much success, says Will. "It didn't work for me as well as it should have." At the age of 16, he underwent two weeks of intensive therapy in the larger city of Kassel. "Right after that, my speech was great." But in the stress of everyday life, the strategies he had practised were lost again – and his speech deteriorated once more. Will says that it was sometimes difficult at school. He knew the answer to the teacher's question, but didn't dare to speak in front of the class. "That can be very frustrating, and of course my oral grade suffered as a result." He graduated from secondary school with average grades. Will says he got on well with his classmates. He started playing sport at an early age. "I've played football all my life. You don't have to talk so much when you're playing," says Will and laughs. Of course, his classmates imitated him from time to time. "But on the whole, my immediate circle was very tolerant." He finds he has fewer problems with stuttering when he is with family and friends – when he is relaxed and feels comfortable. "When I'm a little nervous or around strangers, or around a lot of people, it's a bit worse," he says. However, he found a training position as a freight forwarding clerk fairly easily after leaving school. The HR manager told him at the time "that she thought it was great that I wanted to learn a commercial profession where you naturally have to make phone calls and talk a bit more." He made a conscious decision to pursue this career, as he has always enjoyed working on computers and is an organized person, says Will. He also completed a distance learning course to become a certified specialist in logistics management. He has now been working as a logistics specialist at a scientific publishing house for eight years. The job involves monitoring the flow of goods and it puts him in contact with printing companies. ‘I've known Mr Will since his job interview, when he was still very nervous and his stutter was much more pronounced,’ says his boss Tanja Keller. But over the years, he has made significant progress. "In calm, appreciative working environments, his stutter is hardly noticeable and no longer limits him in his daily work." Will is now preparing for a management role with further training. Every morning, Will does 20 minutes of relaxation and speech exercises, repeating words and practising sentences that are difficult for him. "It gives you a little more confidence and self-assurance for the day," says Will, who also sees a speech therapist regularly. He used the federal association to get in contact with other people who stutter. "It's good to be able to talk to other people who are affected," he says. Alongside professional success and improving his speech, Will also wants to find a partner. When he started to get interested in girls when he was younger, his stutter was not helpful, he says. "Of course, there are always people who react better and others who react worse to it." Today, he is very open about his stutter and mentions it early on in exchanges on dating apps. "So far, no partner has ever actively said, 'It bothers me.'" The following information is not intended for publication dpa jak waw xxde arw

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