Town Hall News

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China’s tourism business during the May Day holiday rebounded to pre-COVID levels, as the number of domestic trips rose by 70.8% from a year earlier, government data showed on Wednesday. If sustained, a recovery in the service sector could ease worries that China’s post-pandemic economic recovery is loosing momentum as the property market remains soft, and exports face headwinds. Travel-hungry Chinese made 274 million domestic trips during […]

By David Shepardson and Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Wednesday he would launch a new effort to address competition with China, planning a new package of legislation to boost the United States’ ability to compete with the Asian powerhouse. After passing a bill last year to boost competition with Beijing in semiconductors and other technology, the Democratic leader will announce bipartisan legislation […]

By Ann Saphir and Dan Burns WASHINGTON – A fight between Republicans and Democrats over the debt limit ceiling could send the U.S. economy into a recession even if the standoff doesn’t actually trigger a debt default, analysts say – and a much worse downturn with perhaps 7.5 million people thrown out of work if it does. Already some corners of the vast market for U.S. debt are feeling a […]

By Elizabeth Piper and Carlos Barria KHERSON (Reuters) -Sixteen civilians were killed on Wednesday in heavy Russian shelling of Ukraine’s Kherson region that hit a hypermarket, a railway station and residential buildings, Ukrainian officials said. Twelve of the victims were in the city of Kherson, the southern region’s capital, where a hypermarket came under fire as people were doing their morning shopping and explosions tore through a railway station. Four […]

By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Senator Marcio Rubio on Wednesday asked the Biden administration to investigate Ford Motor Co’s plan to partner with PT Vale Indonesia and China’s Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt in a $4.5 billion nickel processing plant in Indonesia. Rubio, who is the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the venture threatens U.S. national security and asked the Justice, State, Treasury, Commerce, Homeland Security departments as […]

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Short interest in Nvidia Corp. is down by 7.04 million shares, or 18%, for the year to date, while the stock is up about 91% so far this year, according to S3 Partners. Short interest is currently 1.32% of the float, the lowest level since October 2022, the firm wrote Wednesday. Nvidia is the No. 1 losing equity short so far in 2023, followed by Apple […]

By Lisandra Paraguassu and Ricardo Brito BRASILIA (Reuters) -Brazilian police on Wednesday raided former President Jair Bolsonaro’s home and seized his cell phone as part of an investigation into his COVID-19 vaccination records. The investigation may answer questions about how Bolsonaro, a strident coronavirus skeptic who vowed never to get a COVID vaccine, was registered as vaccinated in health records made public in February. Bolsonaro confirmed the raid on his […]

By Sarah N. Lynch WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A former FBI agent has been arrested for his alleged role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and charged with four misdemeanor counts, including unlawfully entering a restricted building and disorderly conduct, according to court filings. Jared Wise, 51, who served as an FBI agent and a supervisory agent from 2004 to 2017, was taken into custody on Monday and […]

DUBAI (Reuters) -Iran has seized a second oil tanker in a week on Wednesday in Gulf waters, the U.S. Navy said, the latest escalation in a series of seizures or attacks on commercial vessels in Gulf waters since 2019. The Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet of the U.S. Navy said the Panama-flagged oil tanker Niovi was seized by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) at 6:20 a.m. (0220 GMT) while passing […]