Town Hall News

By Burcu Karakas and Huseyin Hayatsever ANKARA (Reuters) -Turkey’s third-place election candidate endorsed President Tayyip Erdogan on Monday, boosting the incumbent and intensifying the challenges for opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu in a Sunday runoff vote. Sinan Ogan, a hardline nationalist who was little known among the broader public before the campaign, won 5.2% support in the initial presidential election on May 14, prompting some analysts to call him a potential […]

(Reuters) – The French Open is offering players at this year’s tournament free access to a tool that will filter hateful messages on their social media platforms in a bid to prevent cyberbullying and harassment, organisers said on Monday. The French Tennis Federation (FFT) said that artificial intelligence will be used to moderate comments players receive on posts in real time – with responses analysed in less than 200 milliseconds […]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department on Monday said Russia’s Wagner Group is trying to obscure its efforts to acquire military equipment for use in Ukraine, adding that Washington has been informed the mercenary force is seeking to move those acquisitions through Mali to aid Russia in its war. Wagner is willing to use false paperwork for such transactions, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters at a regular […]

By Khalid Abdelaziz and Mohamed Nureldin KHARTOUM (Reuters) -Sudan’s army conducted air strikes in the capital Khartoum on Monday, residents said, seeking to win ground against its paramilitary rivals hours before a week-long ceasefire aimed at allowing delivery of aid was due to take effect. The army also carried out air strikes into the evening on Sunday, witnesses said, targeting vehicles from mobile units of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces […]

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) – It was a dire moment for life on Earth. Runaway global warming triggered by calamitous volcanism in Siberia inflicted the worst mass extinction on record – dooming perhaps 90% of species – roughly 252 million years ago at the end of the Permian Period. Unlike the asteroid 66 million years ago that ravaged the dinosaurs, this extinction event unfolded over a protracted time span, […]

(Reuters) – Walmart Inc said on Monday it has signed a deal with pet telehealth provider Pawp to offer the retailer’s subscribed members access to veterinary professionals via video or text without an appointment. Walmart+ customers can use Pawp’s services for a year from Tuesday, the top U.S. retailer said, as it looks to tap growing demand for pet telehealth from inflation-hit customers looking for cheaper alternatives. The deal also lines […]

By Blake Brittain (Reuters) – Walt Disney Co’s Marvel and the estate of artist Steve Ditko both asked a Manhattan federal judge on Friday to hand them a win without waiting for trial in their copyright dispute over rights to superheroes Spider-Man and Doctor Strange. Marvel urged the court to reject the estate’s effort to reclaim Ditko’s interest in the characters, arguing he co-created them on the company’s behalf. Ditko’s […]

By Saeed Azhar and Shreyashi Sanyal NEW YORK (Reuters) – The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq rose modestly on Monday, helped by gains in Alphabet and Meta Platforms, although some investors refrained from big bets ahead of a fresh round of talks about raising the U.S. debt ceiling. U.S. President Joe Biden and top congressional Republican Kevin McCarthy were set to meet on Monday to discuss raising the federal debt […]

PARIS (Reuters) – Brazil does not favour vaccination as a way to control bird flu because it would inevitably lead to trade barriers, one of its senior officials said on Monday. The world’s largest poultry exporter has confirmed five cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), commonly called bird flu, in wild birds, including one in the state of Rio de Janeiro on Monday, but not in a commercial flock. […]