Town Hall News

By Muvija M LONDON (Reuters) -Britain named Anne Keast-Butler as the first female director of its intelligence communications agency GCHQ on Tuesday, tasked with protecting the country from terrorists, cyber-criminals and malign foreign powers. She will take over the role in May, succeeding Jeremy Fleming who is stepping down after a six-year tenure. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, who made the appointment, said Keast-Butler had an impressive track record  at the […]

By Yew Lun Tian and Yimou Lee BEIJING/TAIPEI (Reuters) – China’s latest military drills near Taiwan show it is serious about being able to cut off the democratically ruled island in a conflict, analysts said, as Beijing said its aircraft carriers could “shatter” defences from the east. Although the three-day exercises, which ended Monday, were not as intense as those that unfolded in August 2022 in protest of then-U.S. House […]

By Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard TAIPEI (Reuters) -Chinese warplanes and navy ships were still in the waters around Taiwan, the island’s defence ministry said on Tuesday after the end of three days of war games, as Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen criticised Beijing for its “irresponsible” behaviour. China began the exercises on Saturday after Tsai returned to Taipei following a meeting in Los Angeles with U.S. House of Representatives Speaker […]

By Sruthi Shankar and Ankika Biswas (Reuters) -U.S. stock index futures were mixed on Tuesday as investors refrained from making aggressive bets ahead of inflation data that could determine the Federal Reserve’s next policy moves, while caution also prevailed ahead of the earnings season. Hopes that the Fed will soon end its aggressive monetary policy tightening have helped the benchmark S&P 500 stabilize in April after the collapse of two […]

(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures rose on Tuesday as investors awaited inflation data to gauge the Federal Reserve’s next policy moves, while caution prevailed ahead of the quarterly earnings season. Hopes that the Fed will soon end its aggressive monetary policy tightening have helped the main U.S. equity benchmarks stabilize in April after a selloff last month that was triggered by the collapse of two U.S. mid-sized lenders. A […]

(Reuters) -Cineworld said on Tuesday it had filed a reorganisation plan in a Texas bankruptcy court that will effectively wipe out existing shareholdings, sending its stock to an all-time low. The filing formalises a deal laid out on April 3 that includes plans to cut debt by about $4.53 billion and raise $2.26 billion in funds to emerge from bankruptcy. It does not provide for any recovery for its existing […]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday he plans to introduce a resolution rejecting former President Donald Trump’s call to defund the Justice Department and FBI. Trump, who is seeking to regain the presidency in 2024, made the plea to his fellow Republicans in Congress one day after being charged in New York with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. He pleaded not guilty. Schumer, […]

(Reuters) – Russian forces pressed attacks on frontline cities in eastern Ukraine, while Ukrainian officials played down a report that Kyiv is amending some plans for a counter-offensive because of a leak of classified U.S. documents. BATTLEFIELD * The Russian-installed head of Donetsk said Russian forces controlled more than 75% of the besieged city of Bakhmut. * Russia said it has destroyed a depot containing 70,000 tonnes of fuel near […]

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, Russia (Reuters) – One of Russia’s most active volcanoes erupted on the far eastern Kamchatka peninsula on Tuesday, shooting a vast cloud of ash far into the sky that smothered villages in drifts of grey volcanic dust and triggered an aviation warning. The Shiveluch volcano erupted just after midnight reaching a crescendo about six hours later, spewing out an ash cloud over an area of 108,000 square kilometres (41,699 […]