Town Hall News

By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Time is running out on a deadline for Microsoft to complete its $69 billion merger with Activision Blizzard, compelling the companies to ask a U.S. judge on Wednesday to quickly get the ball rolling on the Federal Trade Commission’s legal bid to block the deal from closing. U.S. District Judge Edward Davila on Tuesday had set a June 22-23 evidentiary hearing in San Francisco and […]

By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Time is running out on a deadline for Microsoft to complete its $69 billion merger with Activision Blizzard, compelling the companies to ask a U.S. judge on Wednesday to quickly get the ball rolling on the Federal Trade Commission’s legal bid to block the deal from closing. U.S. District Judge Edward Davila on Tuesday had set a June 22-23 evidentiary hearing in San Francisco and […]

By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Alphabet’s Google may have to sell part of its lucrative adtech business to address concerns about anti-competitive practices, EU regulators said on Wednesday, threatening the company with its harshest regulatory penalty to date. The European Commission set out its charges in a statement of objections to Google two years after opening an investigation into behaviours such as favouring its own advertising services, which […]

By Humeyra Pamuk, David Brunnstrom and Simon Lewis WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States on Wednesday played down expectations of any breakthrough from the first trip by a U.S. Secretary of State to China in five years, after a tense call with China’s foreign minister ahead Antony Blinken’s visit to Beijing next week. Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang urged the United States to stop meddling in its affairs and harming its […]

By Humeyra Pamuk, David Brunnstrom and Simon Lewis WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States on Wednesday played down expectations of any breakthrough from the first trip by a U.S. Secretary of State to China in five years, after a tense call with China’s foreign minister ahead Antony Blinken’s visit to Beijing next week. Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang urged the United States to stop meddling in its affairs and harming its […]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday defended the independent special counsel he appointed to handle federal criminal cases against former President Donald Trump, the first U.S. president to be charged with federal crimes. Garland, in response to a reporter’s question, rejected the allegations of some Republicans in Congress that Trump’s prosecution by Special Counsel Jack Smith amounted to using the Justice Department as a weapon against […]

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Citigroup Inc in the second quarter will book severance costs associated with around 1,600 job cuts, chief financial officer Mark Mason said on Wednesday. Speaking at a conference in New York, Mason said the bank’s expenses in the second quarter will be $300 million to $400 million higher than the first quarter, “largely attributed to those restructuring or repositioning charges that I had to incur.” (Reporting […]

(Reuters) – The lower house of Russia’s parliament said on Wednesday it had voted to give its initial backing to legislation that will allow the Defence Ministry to sign contracts with suspected or convicted criminals to fight in Ukraine. More than 15 months into what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine, Moscow – whose forces have suffered heavy losses – is trying to recruit more soldiers for what […]

(Reuters) -Canadian media and telecom firm Bell is cutting 1,300 jobs, shuttering six radio stations and selling another three as revenues dry up at its legacy phone and news business, parent company BCE Inc said on Wednesday. The layoffs will mostly affect management and follow thousands of cuts in the media industry that has been wrestling with dwindling ad dollars, elevated levels of inflation and the ongoing shift from cable […]