Town Hall News

By Pavel Polityuk KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine scorned Russian claims to have captured the eastern city of Bakhmut on Monday, saying its foes had raised a victory flag over “some kind of toilet” while combat was raging. The battle for Bakhmut has been one of the bloodiest of the conflict, now in its second year, with many casualties on both sides and the city largely destroyed by bombardments. Yevgeny Prigozhin, head […]

LONDON (Reuters) – OPEC and its allies, including Russia, agreed on Sunday to widen crude oil production cuts to 3.66 million barrels per day (bpd) or 3.7% of global demand. The surprise announcement helped push up prices by $5 per barrel to above $85 per barrel. [O/R] Here are the main reasons why OPEC+ is cutting output: CONCERNS ABOUT WEAK GLOBAL DEMAND Saudi Arabia has said voluntary output cuts of […]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will host a meeting in California on Wednesday with Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen, his office said, part of a sensitive U.S. stopover that has drawn Chinese threats of retaliation. China, which claims democratically ruled Taiwan as its own territory, has repeatedly warned U.S. officials not to meet Tsai. She is on her first U.S. stopover since 2019, though Taiwanese presidents have regularly […]

By Giuseppe Fonte and Angelo Amante ROME (Reuters) -Italy is determined not to lose any of the money it is entitled to from the European Union post-pandemic recovery funds, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Monday. Italy is due to receive roughly 200 billion euros ($217 billion) in grants and cheap loans through 2026, making it the EU scheme’s largest beneficiary in absolute terms. However, it is falling behind both […]

By Karen Freifeld and Rich McKay NEW YORK/PALM BEACH, Florida (Reuters) -Former U.S. President Donald Trump is set to fly from Florida to New York City on Monday, ahead of his scheduled arraignment related to hush money paid to a porn star before the 2016 election, as security tightens in Manhattan. Trump, the first former U.S. president to face criminal charges, is due to be arraigned, fingerprinted and photographed at […]

(Reuters) – Tesla Inc shares fell about 4% on Monday, dragged down by growing worries about the electric-vehicle maker’s profit margins after aggressive price cuts led to only a modest increase in quarterly deliveries. After slashing prices on its vehicles by as much as 20% in January, Tesla posted record deliveries of 422,875 vehicles in the first quarter but they were up just 4% on the prior quarter. Several analysts […]

By Ankika Biswas and Amruta Khandekar (Reuters) – U.S. stock indexes were mixed on Monday as rising oil prices stoked concerns about more interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve to temper inflation, while a jump in shares of energy firms helped stem losses. Saudi Arabia and other OPEC+ oil producers announced further output cuts of around 1.16 million barrels per day, threatening an immediate rise in prices. This comes […]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. manufacturing activity slumped to the lowest level in nearly three years in March as new orders continued to contract, and activity could decline further amid tightening credit conditions. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said on Monday that its manufacturing PMI fell to 46.3 last month, the lowest reading since May 2020, from 47.7 in February. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the index dipping to […]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will host a meeting in California on Wednesday with Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen, part of a sensitive U.S. stopover that has drawn Chinese threats of retaliation, sources told Reuters. China, which claims democratically ruled Taiwan as its own territory, has repeatedly warned U.S. officials not to meet Tsai. She is on her first U.S. stopover since 2019. (Reporting by Michael Martina; writing […]