Town Hall News

By Steve Keating MIAMI (Reuters) – George Russell overcame steering issues that threatened to scuttle his first practice session of the Miami Grand Prix on Friday to put his Mercedes top of the timing sheets ahead of team mate and seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton. Red Bull’s double world champion Max Verstappen had spent much of the hot and steamy practice at the top of the charts but ended the […]

By Ted Hesson WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. will finalize by May 11 a new regulation that will deny asylum to many migrants caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on Friday. Under the new regulation, migrants will be presumed ineligible for asylum if they passed through another country en route to the U.S. without seeking protection or if they failed to use other legal […]

, CARACAS – Venezuelan opposition party Voluntad Popular on Friday named a new candidate for a key presidential primary in October, replacing formerly anti-government leader Juan Guaido who left Venezuela unexpectedly in late April. At a news conference, Voluntad Popular named political coordinator Freddy Superlano, a 46-year-old engineer and critic of President Nicholas Maduro, as its nominee, explaining Guaido could not represent the party from “exile.” Voluntad Popular member Desiree […]

GENEVA (Reuters) -More than 1 million polio vaccines intended for children have been destroyed as a result of looting in Sudan during the upsurge in violence since April, the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF told Reuters on Friday. “A number of cold chain facilities have been looted, damaged and destroyed, including over a million polio vaccines in South Darfur,” Hazel De Wet, deputy director of the Office of Emergency Programmes, UNICEF told […]

By Manya Saini and Chibuike Oguh (Reuters) – Shares in PacWest Bancorp jumped 87% amid a broader rebound in U.S. regional banks on Friday after analysts upgraded a number of lenders they said were oversold, though some investors fretted the surge may be short-lived. Investor worries about the health of mid-sized lenders deepened in recent days following the collapse of First Republic Bank and PacWest’s announcement that it was exploring […]

By Karen Brettell NEW YORK (Reuters) – The dollar gave back earlier gains against the euro but stayed stronger against the yen on Friday after jobs gains and wage growth for April beat economists’ forecasts but showed downward jobs revisions for March. Employers added 253,000 jobs, beating economists’ forecasts for a 180,000 gain. U.S. average hourly earnings rose at an annual rate of 4.4%, above expectations for a 4.2% increase. […]

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A prominent Russian theatre director was remanded in custody for two months on Friday after being accused of justifying terrorism with an award-winning play about Russian women who married Islamic State fighters, the state news agency TASS reported. Investigators opened a case this week against Yevgenia (Zhenya) Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk, alleging that Petriychuk’s “Finist, the Brave Falcon”, which premiered in 2020 under Berkovich’s direction, had […]

(Reuters) – Florida’s Senate on Thursday passed a bill that will allow a tourism board appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis to cancel development agreements its predecessor body signed, the latest salvo against the Walt Disney Co from the conservative leader. Under the bill, which now goes to DeSantis for signing into law, the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board, appointed by DeSantis to oversee development in and around Disney’s theme […]

By John Kruzel WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday halted the execution of Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip, whose case has drawn support from the state’s Republican attorney general after an investigation shed new light on evidence relating to the 1997 murder Glossip was convicted of commissioning. The justices acted after a divided Oklahoma state panel on April 26 voted against recommending clemency for Glossip, 60, who was scheduled […]