Town Hall News

(Reuters) – The top foreign and defense officials of the United States and the Philippines will meet in Washington next week, the U.S. State Department announced on Wednesday, just as the two countries have expanded their defense cooperation agreement. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will receive Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo and defense chief Carlito Galvez on Tuesday. The announcement of the […]

(Reuters) -A man armed with a small axe climbed over a wall into a crèche in Southern Brazil and killed four children on Wednesday, police said, injuring five others in the attack. The 25-year-old man turned himself in to police after the rampage, security chief Marcio Alberto Filippi told reporters. Police said three boys – two aged 4 and one aged 5 – and one girl aged 7 were killed. […]

(This story has been refiled to fix typographical error in paragraph 6) By Sarah N. Lynch and Nate Raymond (Reuters) – The U.S. Sentencing Commission approved new guidelines on Wednesday that will expand federal inmates’ ability to qualify for compassionate release from prison. The new policy, approved in a vote of 4-3, was part of a broader package of amendments, and represent the most sweeping criminal justice reforms the commission […]

GLEN ALLEN, Mo. (AP) — A large tornado ripped through southeastern Missouri before dawn on Wednesday, killing at least five people and causing widespread destruction as the third in a series of deadly massive storms over the past two weeks struck the nation’s heartland. Forecasters kept a wary eye out for more possible tornadoes, hail and extreme weather as this year’s early storm season continued. It has spawned dozens of […]

By Pavel Polityuk KYIV (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said during a trip to Warsaw on Wednesday that Poland would help form a coalition of Western powers to supply warplanes to Kyiv, adding that Ukrainian troops were still fighting for Bakhmut in the east but could withdraw if they risked being cut off. Neighbouring Poland is a close ally of Ukraine and helped galvanise support in the West to […]

By Riham Alkousaa and Stephan Schepers LIPPSTADT (Germany) (Reuters) – Hussain Besou was just four when he started asking his father to teach him chess, hovering around the board as he played in the evenings in the Middle East until he said yes. After mastering the basic moves, Besou quickly surprised everyone with his talent. “He started correcting us and telling us what we should have done to win,” said […]

By Steve Keating AUGUSTA, Georgia (Reuters) – Dark clouds are gathering at Augusta National and it has nothing to do with the LIV Golf and PGA Tour feud, as wild weather rolls in threatening to wreak havoc at the Masters where play gets underway on Thursday. The dispute between the established PGA Tour and the Saudi-bankrolled LIV was expected to be the storm enveloping the year’s first major but all […]

By Hyonhee Shin SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea on Thursday accused the U.S. and South Korea of escalating tension to the brink of nuclear war through their joint military drills involving American strategic assets, vowing to respond with “offensive action,” state media KCNA said. KCNA released a commentary by Choe Ju Hyon, whom it called an international security analyst, criticising the exercises as “a trigger for driving the situation on […]

By Brendan Pierson (Reuters) – A Planned Parenthood affiliate and two doctors on Wednesday filed a lawsuit seeking to block Idaho authorities from punishing healthcare providers for referring patients to get abortions in other states. Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador, a Republican, said in a legal opinion last week that the state’s near-total abortion ban, enacted last August, “prohibits an Idaho medical provider from … referring a woman across state […]