Town Hall News

(Deletes extraneous words in paragraph three) WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence will not appeal a judge’s ruling that requires him to testify to a grand jury about conversations he had with former President Donald Trump leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, a spokesman for Pence said on Wednesday. In a March ruling, the judge also said Pence can still decline to […]

By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United States, Britain, Albania and Malta walked out on Russia’s envoy for children’s rights – whom the International Criminal Court wants to arrest on war crimes charges – as she spoke by video to U.N. Security Council members on Wednesday. Britain and the United States blocked the informal meeting on Ukraine, convened by Russia to focus on “evacuating children from conflict zones,” […]

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 has enacted in more than four years. The seven-member U.S. Sentencing Commission is […]

By Kanishka Singh WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown’s office on Wednesday released a redacted version of an investigative report that detailed sexual abuse accusations against clergy within the Archdiocese of Baltimore dating back to the 1940s. The report of more than 450 pages is the product of a grand jury investigation four years in the making. “What we learned is that the incontrovertible history uncovered by this […]

By Noel Randewich and Ankika Biswas (Reuters) – The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq ended lower on Wednesday after a growing wave of weak economic data deepened worries that the Federal Reserve’s rapid interest rate hikes might tip the U.S. economy into a recession. Nvidia Corp was among the stocks weighing most on the S&P 500 after Alphabet Inc’s Google unit said the supercomputers it uses to train its artificial […]

(Reuters) -Johnson & Johnson’s shares rose nearly 4% in early trading to hit a near two-month high of $164.48 on Wednesday as the company’s $8.9 billion offer to settle talc-related lawsuits gained support of thousands of claimants, easing an overhang on its plans to list consumer health unit Kenvue. Some analysts were positive about the new settlement that is far bigger than the original offer of $2 billion, as they […]

By Tom Hals WILMINGTON, Del (Reuters) – Fox Corp executives Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch can be called to testify at this month’s defamation trial over a $1.6 billion lawsuit claiming the media company lied about voter fraud in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, a judge said on Wednesday. Rupert Murdoch, the 92-year-old chair of Fox Corp, and his son, Lachlan Murdoch, its CEO, were not on the list of witnesses […]

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Makiko Yamazaki NEW YORK/TOKYO (Reuters) -Additional shareholders in Seven & i Holdings are pushing the company to spin off its 7-Eleven convenience store chain and want new directors on the board as investor frustration with its conglomerate structure intensifies. Conglomerates are seen offering rich pickings for investor activists in Japan, which has become one of the world’s most popular destinations for those looking for targets with […]

By Michael Martina and David Brunnstrom SIMI VALLEY, Calif. (Reuters) -U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in California on Wednesday, becoming the most senior U.S. figure to meet a Taiwanese leader on U.S. soil since 1979 despite threats of retaliation from China, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as its own. Tsai thanked the U.S. Congress for standing by Taiwan when democracy was under threat and said she […]