Town Hall News

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan and China are making arrangements to hold a meeting between their defence ministers on the sidelines of an international conference in Singapore next month, Kyodo news agency said on Monday, citing unnamed sources. The report comes after Group of Seven (G7) declarations issued at a summit in Hiroshima singled out China on such issues as Taiwan and economic coercion, prompting Beijing to summon Japan’s ambassador to […]

By Gram Slattery WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the U.S. Senate, is set to kick off his 2024 presidential campaign on Monday, betting that his optimistic message will sell in a party in which many voters are still firmly behind former President Donald Trump. While Scott formally acknowledged his candidacy in a filing with the federal election regulator on Friday, his speech to supporters in […]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden and House Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy plan to meet over the debt ceiling on Monday, with just 10 days before the Treasury expects to start running out of money in what would be an unprecedented default upending the global economy. Staff members from both sides reconvened at McCarthy’s office in the Capitol on Sunday evening for talks that lasted about two-and-a-half hours, after […]

By Tatiana Bautzer and Saeed Azhar NEW YORK (Reuters) – The turmoil facing U.S. regional banks has prompted some lenders to step back, leaving space for investors such as asset managers, private equity (PE) funds and insurers to lend more. Non-bank lenders with deep pockets have invested in credit assets for years, but the regional banking crisis could supercharge their expansion into areas such as providing consumer car loans and […]

A look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets from Mike Dolan. Well-choreographed brinkmanship over the debt ceiling standoff looks set to go down to the wire, while technology firms have once again become a battleground in tense geopolitics. Despite growing optimism last week about some bipartisan deal on lifting the U.S. debt cap – preventing the government running out of cash early next month and forcing a […]

By Padraic Halpin DUBLIN (Reuters) – Meta was hit with a record 1.2 billion euro ($1.3 billion) fine by its lead privacy regulator in the European Union for its handling of user information and given five months to stop transferring users’ data to the United States. The fine imposed by Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) concerned Meta’s continued transferring of personal data topped the previous 746 million euro record EU […]

By Joyce Lee and Brenda Goh SEOUL/SHANGHAI (Reuters) -A move by Beijing to bar U.S. firm Micron Technology Inc from selling memory chips to key domestic industries has ramped up tensions in an ongoing trade spat with Washington and lifted shares of firms that could benefit from the move.  China’s cyberspace regulator said late on Sunday that Micron, the biggest U.S. memory chipmaker, had failed its network security review and […]

BEIJING (Reuters) – The president of minerals-rich Democratic Republic of Congo, Felix Tshisekedi, will visit China from May 24 to 29 and is expected to meet President Xi Jinping to review and sign several key trade deals. A meeting would pave the way for the two countries to formally overhaul and seal a $6 billion infrastructure-for-minerals deal with Chinese investors. The visit was announced by the Chinese foreign ministry on […]

By Liz Lee and Satoshi Sugiyama BEIJING/TOKYO (Reuters) -State-backed Chinese mouthpiece Global Times called the G7 an “anti-China workshop” on Monday, a day after Beijing summoned Japan’s envoy and berated Britain in a fiery response to statements issued at the group’s summit in Hiroshima. Group of Seven (G7) declarations issued on Saturday singled out China on issues including Taiwan, nuclear arms, economic coercion and human rights abuses, underscoring the wide-ranging […]