Town Hall News

(Reuters) – The Kremlin said on Friday it was monitoring reports of a possible ban on exports to Russia by Western countries, and that new sanctions would damage the global economy. “We are carefully monitoring this, we are aware that both the U.S. and the EU are actively considering new sanctions,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “We believe that both the current sanctions against the Russian Federation and the […]

(Adds dropped letter in paragraph four) By Mark Trevelyan LONDON (Reuters) -With virtually all the Kremlin’s opponents already jailed or in exile, and liberal press outlets and human rights groups forced to shut down, it might have appeared that years of repression in Russia had achieved their objective. But in the space of just three weeks, Russia’s security services and courts have crossed several new thresholds in their campaign to […]

By Lori Ewing (Reuters) – Some 50,000 runners will race in the 43rd London Marathon on Sunday and then head home with participant medals around their necks and silver foil blankets around their tired shoulders. And they will leave a large carbon footprint in their wake. Like any mass participation event, climate concerns are a growing part of marathon planning, and this year London Marathon Events have teamed up with […]

LONDON (Reuters) – Investors cut their cash holdings for the first time in eight weeks, while shedding equities and gold in the week to Wednesday, according to a report from BofA Global Research on Friday. Cash funds saw outflows of $65.3 billion, BofA said, citing EPFR data. Bond funds, meanwhile, recorded inflows of $4.6 billion, while investors sold $2.6 billion of global stocks and pulled $70 million out of gold […]

By Nell Mackenzie PARIS (Reuters) – The biggest threat to the economic outlook is a credit squeeze that has not finished filtering through the financial system, a senior official at Fidelity International told a European equities conference on Wednesday. For asset managers, hedge funds and traders gathered in Paris for the Tradetech equity trading conference, recession risks were a key talking point. The failure of two U.S. lenders and the […]

By Anthony Boadle and Lisandra Paraguassu BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is expected to avoid criticism of the U.S. and European role in the Ukraine war when he visits Portugal this weekend, two Brazilian officials told Reuters on Thursday. Lula angered many in the West last weekend when he called for the United States and European allies to stop supplying arms to Ukraine saying they […]

By Kirsty Needham SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia will outline its defence plans next week, and its leaders are previewing a more assertive posture – in which it can strike farther, faster – while working with mid-size allies to reduce tensions as the United States and China square off. The Labor government of Anthony Albanese is expected to lay out those proposals in response to a wide-ranging and secret defence review […]

LONDON (Reuters) -British Deputy Prime Minister and justice minister Dominic Raab resigned on Friday, following an independent investigation into formal complaints of bullying. In a letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak published on Twitter, Raab said the inquiry had set a dangerous precedent, but that he would remain supportive of the government. “I called for the inquiry and undertook to resign, if it made any finding of bullying whatsoever. I […]

(Reuters) – Henkel on Friday said it expects to see a net financial loss in the deal to sell its Russian business. The consumer goods group did not disclose the amount of losses but pointed out that the currency exchange effect would play a role in the transaction. Further details on the deal will be provided in the company’s first-half earnings release in August, it added. On Thursday evening, Henkel […]