Town Hall News

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Friday that Moscow was boosting the combat readiness of its military bases in Central Asia to counter what he said were U.S. efforts to grow its presence, the RIA news agency reported. Moscow has military bases in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, but RIA cited Shoigu – who was speaking at a meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation defence ministers in India – […]

By Khalid Abdelaziz, Nafisa Eltahir and Aidan Lewis KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Alarmed that movements of rival military factions in Sudan could bring bloodshed, a group of mediators pushed for last-ditch talks between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and paramilitary commander General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo two weeks ago. But neither of Sudan’s two most powerful men showed up to the meeting, convened at presidential offices in central Khartoum at 10 a.m. […]

By Steve Holland and Kanishka Singh WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence appeared before a grand jury investigating former President Donald Trump’s role in efforts to overturn the 2020 election, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday. Pence was inside U.S. District Court in Washington for more than seven hours, ABC News and NBC News reported earlier. Representatives for Pence had no comment. The former […]

KYIV (Reuters) – Russia attacked cities in a wide arc across Ukraine early on Friday, from the capital, Kyiv, through central and southern regions and at least five people were killed, according to media and officials. The attacks come as Ukrainian forces are expected to soon launch an offensive with new military equipment, including tanks, from its Western allies after Russian forces made little headway in a winter offensive. In […]

By Leika Kihara TOKYO (Reuters) – The Bank of Japan (BOJ) on Friday kept ultra-low interest rates but announced a broad review of its monetary policy, laying the groundwork for new Governor Kazuo Ueda to gradually phase out his predecessor’s massive stimulus programme. As widely expected, the BOJ made no changes to its yield curve control (YCC) policy, however, it modified its future guidance, removing a pledge to keep interest […]

By Supantha Mukherjee, Foo Yun Chee and Martin Coulter (Reuters) – Companies deploying generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, will have to disclose any copyrighted material used to develop their systems, according to an early EU agreement that could pave the way for the world’s first comprehensive laws governing the technology. The European Commission began drafting the AI Act nearly two years ago to regulate emerging artificial intelligence technology, which […]

By Iain Withers and Lawrence White LONDON (Reuters) -British bank NatWest posted better than expected profit for the first three months of 2023 as income soared 37%, even as inflation hammered households and fierce pricing competition squeezed the bank’s customer deposits. NatWest reported pretax profit of 1.8 billion pounds ($2.25 billion) for the first quarter, above the 1.6 billion pound average of analyst forecasts compiled by the bank and the […]

By Richa Naidu and Jessica DiNapoli LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Sudan’s eruption into conflict has left international consumer goods makers racing to shore up supplies of gum arabic, one of the country’s most sought-after products and a key ingredient in everything from fizzy drinks to candy and cosmetics. About 70% of the world’s supply of gum arabic, for which there are few substitutes, comes from the acacia trees in the […]

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Industrial technology group Hexagon on Friday reported a bigger than expected rise in first-quarter adjusted profit as the company’s sales increased and it managed to soften the effects of cost inflation and currency swings. The maker of measurement and positioning systems and software said adjusted operating profit came in at 372 million euros ($410 million) against a year-earlier 335 million, on organic sales growth of 8%. Analysts polled […]