Town Hall News

By Sruthi Shankar and Ankika Biswas (Reuters) – U.S. stock indexes gained on Friday after strong earnings updates from Exxon and Intel dwarfed worries over Amazon’s slowdown warning, while economic data bolstered expectations that the Federal Reserve would hike interest rates next week. Exxon Mobil Corp rose 2.2% to hit an all-time high as the energy major reported a record first-quarter profit on rising oil and gas output, aiding a […]

By Brendan Pierson (Reuters) – The Biden administration has asked a federal appeals court to put on hold a judge’s ruling striking down the Affordable Care Act’s mandate that insurers cover preventive care, including screenings for certain cancers and pre-exposure prophylaxis against HIV (PrEP), at no extra cost to patients. In a filing Thursday evening with the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the U.S. Justice Department said […]

By Dietrich Knauth (Reuters) – The NBA’s Phoenix Suns and WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury announced a new television and streaming rights deal for their basketball games on Friday, over the objection of the bankrupt U.S. sports broadcaster that currently televises Suns regular-season games. The Suns and Mercury in a statement from the teams’ owner said they would deliver all locally broadcast games to television and online streaming through a partnership with […]

By Steve Scherer OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada and the United States have agreed to trace guns that are intercepted at the border, a move meant to enhance efforts to stop the smuggling of handguns to the north from the world’s biggest private firearm market, according to a Canadian government document. The agreement is set to be announced later on Friday when Canada’s Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino and U.S. Secretary […]

(Reuters) -Access to the ChatGPT chatbot has been restored in Italy after its maker OpenAI “addressed or clarified” issues raised by Italy’s data protection authority, an OpenAI spokesperson said on Friday. Microsoft Corp-backed OpenAI took ChatGPT offline in Italy last month after the country’s data protection authority, also known as Garante, temporarily banned the chatbot and launched a probe over the artificial intelligence application’s suspected breach of privacy rules. The […]

ANKARA (Reuters) – The foreign ministers of Iran, Russia, Syria and Turkey may hold a meeting in May in Moscow, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday, as part of efforts to rebuild Turkey-Syria ties after years of animosity during Syria’s civil war. NATO member Turkey has backed political and armed opposition to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during the 12-year civil war, and sent its own troops into the […]

200,000 Rally in Jerusalem in Support of Controversial Judicial Reform   At the loud but peaceful demonstration outside the Israeli parliament, supporters said the last election was a mandate for change. But critics argue that the planned reforms would fatally undermine democracy.   By Felice Friedson /The Media Line   An estimated 200,000 people gathered in Jerusalem on Thursday night, demanding that the ruling coalition move forward with its controversial […]

Erdoğan Appears With Putin Via Video for Nuclear Plant Inauguration Amid Health Concerns The Turkish president canceled a second day of in-person events weeks before national election By Kristina Jovanovski/The Media Line Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appeared via video alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday during a ceremony for a Russian-made nuclear power plant in southwestern Turkey, in Erdoğan’s second day of canceled in-person events due to illness. […]

By Philip Pullella, Krisztina Than and Boldizsar Gyori BUDAPEST (Reuters) -Pope Francis, starting a trip to Hungary, on Friday pointedly warned of the dangers of rising nationalism in Europe and told the Budapest government that accepting migrants along with the rest of the continent would be a true sign of Christianity. In a hard-hitting speech to government leaders including Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has had a series of run-ins […]