Town Hall News

By David Morgan and Nandita Bose WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy could not reach an agreement Monday on how to raise the U.S. government’s $31.4 trillion debt ceiling with just 10 days before a possible default that could sink the U.S. economy, but vowed to keep talking. The Democratic president and the top congressional Republican have struggled to make a deal, as McCarthy pressures […]

PARIS (Reuters) -Brazil does not favour vaccination as a way to control bird flu because it would inevitably lead to trade barriers, one of its senior officials said on Monday. The world’s largest poultry exporter has confirmed eight cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), commonly called bird flu, in wild birds, including one in the state of Rio de Janeiro on Monday, but not in a commercial flock. “Currently […]

By Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) – Abbott Laboratories persuaded a federal judge to dismiss some claims in nationwide litigation over recalled baby formula. In a decision on Monday, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly in Chicago dismissed claims by parents pursuing only “economic loss” claims related to Similac and other formula that they said had a “substantial risk” of bacteria contamination. The parents said they would not have bought or would have […]

SYDNEY (Reuters) – The Australian government on Tuesday welcomed a defence cooperation agreement between its closest neighbour Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the U.S. aimed at bolstering regional security amid China’s plans to increase influence in the Pacific. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and PNG Prime Minister James Marape on Monday signed the defence pact in the Pacific nation’s capital of Port Moresby, which would make it easier for […]

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexico’s top court invalidated a presidential decree on Monday that declared a pair of major transport projects a matter of national security, which would have reduced civilian oversight and made future legal challenges more difficult. One of the projects is a rail line known as the Mayan Train which aims to link tourist spots in the Yucatan Peninsula and the other is the so-called Inter-Oceanic Corridor, a […]

By Timothy Gardner WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Energy Department decided on Monday to cancel contract negotiations on a $200 million award for Microvast Holdings, a lithium battery company, a source familiar with the matter said. The department had been in talks with Microvast over a grant of $200 million from the $1 trillion 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law for developing domestic manufacturing bases and supply chains. Last December, two Republican lawmakers […]

(Refiles to correct spelling of closest in first paragraph) SYDNEY (Reuters) -The Australian government on Tuesday welcomed a defence cooperation agreement between its closest neighbour Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the U.S. aimed at bolstering regional security amid China’s plans to increase influence in the Pacific. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and PNG Prime Minister James Marape on Monday signed the defence pact in the Pacific nation’s capital of […]

By Burcu Karakas and Huseyin Hayatsever ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey’s third-place election candidate endorsed President Tayyip Erdogan on Monday, boosting the incumbent and intensifying the challenges for opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu in a Sunday runoff vote. Sinan Ogan, a hardline nationalist who was little known among the broader public before the campaign, won 5.2% support in the initial presidential election on May 14, prompting some analysts to call him a […]

By Catarina Demony and Luis Ferreira SILVES, Portugal (Reuters) -Portuguese police will on Tuesday search a reservoir inland from where British three-year-old Madeleine McCann disappeared in 2007, authorities said, in the first formal development in the case in Portugal in several years. A fire brigade spokesperson said police were preparing to start searches on Tuesday at a dam in the southern region of Algarve about 50 km (31.07 miles) inland […]