Town Hall News

By Niket Nishant and Chibuike Oguh (Reuters) -Shares of major U.S. regional banks plunged on Tuesday as the demise of First Republic Bank triggered investor concern about the financial health of other mid-sized lenders. JPMorgan Chase agreed on Monday to acquire a majority of First Republic’s assets in a $10.6 billion deal, after regulators seized the lender, which became the largest U.S. bank failure since the 2008 financial crisis. Traders […]

CHISINAU (Reuters) – Moldovan former Prime Minister Iurie Leanca has been charged with abuse of power over a concession that gave control of the country’s main airport to a businessman now in exile, a senior prosecutor said on Tuesday. Veronica Dragalin, head of Moldova’s anti-corruption prosecution office, said a former economy minister and six other former officials also faced similar charges in a criminal case which she said had been […]

By Mayela Armas CARACAS (Reuters) – Some of U.S. oil major Chevron Corp’s export earnings from its Venezuela operations are bolstering supplies of U.S. dollars in the South American country, three sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Chevron operates in Venezuela, which is under U.S. sanctions, with special authorization from Washington. It received and exported about 148,000 barrels per day of Venezuelan heavy crude to the U.S. in […]

By Arunima Kumar (Reuters) -Marathon Petroleum Corp said on Tuesday it expects strong margins throughout 2023 as demand grows while supply constraints persist, after the top U.S. refiner beat Wall Street estimates for quarterly profit. Closure of facilities during the pandemic and demand recovery have lifted refiners’ margins, further bolstered by tight crude supplies following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a jump in jet fuel demand due to a travel […]

KAMPALA (Reuters) -Uganda’s parliament on Tuesday passed one of the world’s strictest anti-LGBTQ bills mostly unchanged, including provision for long jail terms and the death penalty, after the president requested some parts of the original legislation be toned down. The new bill retains most of the harshest measures of the legislation adopted in March, which drew condemnation from the United States, European Union, United Nations and major corporations. The provisions […]

By Howard Schneider FARIBAULT, Minnesota (Reuters) – Demand for Daikin Applied Americas Inc’s climate control equipment is soaring, and worker recruitment is in hyperdrive, with hiring trips to women’s shelters and immigrant support groups and an open door for applicants with no high school degree or manufacturing experience. For Minnesota’s healthcare industry, an estimated 5,000 open nursing positions have sparked the invention of a new specialty, the nurse retentionist who […]

By Andrew Mills DOHA (Reuters) -The United Nations will stay in Afghanistan to deliver aid to millions of desperate Afghans despite the Taliban’s restrictions on its female staff, but funding is drying up, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday. Guterres, speaking to the media after a meeting of envoys from more than 20 countries in Doha to discuss a common international approach to Afghanistan, also said concerns over the […]

By Sarah N. Lynch and Jasper Ward WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Justice Department announced on Tuesday the arrest of 288 suspects, as part of an international law enforcement operation aimed at curbing the illicit trafficking of fentanyl and other dangerous opioids on the dark web. The operation, dubbed Operation SpecTor, involved multiple law enforcement agencies and was conducted across the United States, Europe, and South America. U.S. Attorney General Merrick […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Widespread loneliness in the U.S. poses health risks as deadly as smoking a dozen cigarettes daily, costing the health industry billions of dollars annually, the U.S. surgeon general said Tuesday in declaring the latest public health epidemic. About half of U.S. adults say they’ve experienced loneliness, Dr. Vivek Murthy said in an 81-page report from his office. “We now know that loneliness is a common feeling that […]