Town Hall News

By Nandita Bose WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A flurry of recent state bills targeting LGBTQ kids and gender affirming care for youth sets a dangerous precedent, the White House said Thursday, while encouraging protests. “We are so proud of the kids across this country who have organized protests and school walkouts to tell the politicians in their states to stop this legislative bullying,” Karine Jean-Pierre, the first openly gay White House […]

By Ismail Shakil OTTAWA (Reuters) -Two people died and more than a million were without power on Thursday after an ice storm hit Canada’s two most-populated provinces ahead of a holiday weekend, bringing freezing rain and strong winds that toppled trees and weighed down power lines. Just under a million people did not have power in Quebec and about 110,000 in Ontario as of 4 p.m. (2000 GMT), according to […]

GENEVA (Reuters) – The World Health Organization chief pressed China on Thursday to share its information about the origins of COVID-19, saying that until that happened all hypotheses remained on the table, more than three years after the virus first emerged . “Without full access to the information that China has, you cannot say this or that,” said Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in response to a question about the […]

By Hyunjoo Jin and Paul Lienert San Francisco (Reuters) – Tesla Inc said it plans to expand the use of cheaper, iron-based batteries to a version of its Semi heavy electric trucks and an affordable electric vehicle. Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk has championed on the lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery technology dominated by Chinese suppliers, saying in March, “the vast majority of the heavy lifting for electrification will be […]

By Noel Randewich and Ankika Biswas (Reuters) – The S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended higher on Thursday, helped by a rally in Alphabet shares as investors, worried about a slowing economy, looked to upcoming jobs data. Alphabet Inc and Microsoft provided more fuel than any other stocks for the S&P 500’s gain for the session. Alphabet’s Google unit plans to add artificial intelligence features to its search engine, the Wall […]

By Frank Pingue AUGUSTA, Georgia (Reuters) – Norway’s Viktor Hovland fired his lowest score in a major to grab the Masters clubhouse lead on Thursday while Tiger Woods mostly struggled and tournament favourites Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy went out with the late starters. Hovland, who stood out from the field as much for his play as the bold floral pattern on his shirt, fired a bogey-free seven-under-par 65 in […]

By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) – The dollar slipped against some major currencies in thin trading Thursday, as investors consolidated positions and pondered how pivotal U.S. jobs data coming out on a stock trading holiday might impact Federal Reserve policy and unleash a potentially volatile market reaction. The U.S. stock market is closed on Good Friday and some European countries are shut on Monday as well. The closely watched […]

By Andrew Chung (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday refused to let West Virginia enforce a state law banning transgender athletes from female sports teams at public schools, one of many Republican-backed measures across the country targeting LGBTQ rights. The justices denied West Virginia’s request to lift an injunction against the law that a lower court had imposed while litigation continues over its legality in a challenge brought […]

BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil is offering to host a regional summit in early August to renew the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO), bringing together countries containing parts of the Amazon rainforest along with senior officials from the U.S. and France. Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira said on Thursday that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva aims to consolidate the region’s plans for the Amazon at the summit in the northern […]