Town Hall News

By Richa Naidu LONDON (Reuters) – Despite some signs inflationary pressures are easing, Unilever warned on Thursday of big increases in the prices of dairy, soybean oil, cocoa and sugar in the first half of this year – potentially bad news for fans of its Ben & Jerry’s Half Baked ice cream. Unilever, which is passing on about three-quarters of its expenses to consumers, said its profit margins had fallen […]

DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran seized a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman in international waters on Thursday, the U.S. Navy said, the latest in a series of seizures and attacks on commercial vessels in Gulf waters since 2019. Iran’s state television IRIB News reported on its Telegram channel that the Iranian navy had seized a Marshall Islands-flagged ship, but gave no further details. The U.S. Navy identified […]

By Alan Baldwin (Reuters) – Ferrari are recruiting massively as they reorganise the Formula One team and the announced departure of sporting director Laurent Mekies is no drama, team boss Fred Vasseur said on Thursday. Red Bull-owned AlphaTauri said on Wednesday that Franz Tost, 67, will be stepping down as principal at the end of the 2023 season with Mekies arriving to replace him at a date to be confirmed. […]

KHARTOUM (Reuters) – As Sudan fell apart this month in pitched battles between warring military factions, Mohamed Jally’s family in the vast desert region of Darfur was itself torn in two, with a brother fighting on each side. Although the brothers are not presently fighting in the same place, Jally fears the war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group will eventually pitch them against each […]

By Nerijus Adomaitis and Gwladys Fouche OSLO (Reuters) – A former commander of Russia’s Wagner group seeking asylum in Norway was convicted on Thursday of being involved in a bar fight and of carrying an air gun but was acquitted of committing violence against police. Andrei Medvedev, 26, was handed down a suspended sentence of 14 days, with a probation period of two years. “I want to thank the court […]

(Reuters) – Contracts to buy U.S. previously owned homes tumbled unexpectedly in March to snap a three-month rebound, raising a caution flag about what had appeared to be a nascent recovery in a housing market that has been clobbered by rising interest rates. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) said on Thursday its Pending Home Sales Index, based on signed contracts, fell 5.2% last month to 78.9, the lowest since […]

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan held talks by telephone on Thursday, their offices said, before the two countries marked the inauguration of Turkey’s first nuclear power reactor. The Akkuyu nuclear power plant in Turkey’s southern Mersin province has been built by Russia’s state nuclear energy company Rosatom. Erdogan thanked Putin during their call for his help on the power plant, the Turkish leader’s office […]

By Aditya Soni (Reuters) -Meta Platforms Inc is a Wall Street darling again. The company’s shares continued their winning streak on Thursday, surging nearly 14% after Meta’s focus on AI and cost-cutting cheered investors whose enthusiasm has already helped the social media behemoth nearly double in value this year. Meta is set to add around $75 billion to its market valuation and overtake Nvidia Corp as the best-performing stock in […]

By Nerijus Adomaitis and Gwladys Fouche OSLO (Reuters) – A former commander of Russia’s Wagner group seeking asylum in Norway was convicted on Thursday of being involved in a bar fight and of carrying an air gun but was acquitted of committing violence against police. Andrei Medvedev, 26, was handed down a suspended sentence of 14 days, with a probation period of two years. “I want to thank the court […]