Town Hall News

Fatah-Affiliated Group Loses University Election, Suggesting Public Dissatisfaction with PA The Hamas-linked Islamic Allegiance Bloc won the student council elections at An-Najah National University in Nablus, indicating waning popularity for Fatah and dissatisfaction with the Palestinian Authority’s leadership By Mohammad Al-Kassim/The Media Line Tuesday night brought yet another indication of Fatah’s rapidly sinking popularity. Although the party controls the West Bank, the Fatah-affiliated Student Youth Movement lost the student council […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — An optimistic President Joe Biden declared Wednesday he is confident the U.S. will avoid an unprecedented and potentially catastrophic debt default, saying talks with congressional Republicans have been productive. He left for a G-7 summit in Japan but planned to return by the weekend in hopes of approving a solid agreement. Biden’s upbeat remarks came as a select group of negotiators began meeting to try and hammer […]

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed bills Wednesday that ban gender-changing medical procedures for minors, target drag shows, restrict discussion of personal pronouns in schools and force people to use certain bathrooms. DeSantis has made pro-traditional family legislation a large part of his agenda as he prepares to seek the Republican presidential nomination. He signed the bills in front of a cheering crowd at the evangelical Cambridge […]

(Refiles to add dropped word ‘euro’ in headline) By Andrew Gray BRUSSELS (Reuters) -European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has proposed adding 3.5 billion euros ($3.85 billion) to a fund used to finance military aid for Ukraine, EU sources said on Wednesday. The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Borrell had asked EU governments to raise the financial ceiling on the European Peace Facility (EPF), a fund that […]

BOGOTA (Reuters) – Four children from an Indigenous community in Colombia were found alive in the south of the country more than two weeks after the plane they were traveling in crashed in thick jungle, President Gustavo Petro said on Wednesday. The children were rescued by members of the military, firefighters and civil aviation authority officials in the dense jungle of Colombia’s Caqueta province. The plane – a Cessna 206 […]

BOGOTA (Reuters) – Four children from an Indigenous community in Colombia were found alive in the south of the country more than two weeks after the plane they were traveling in crashed in thick jungle, President Gustavo Petro said on Wednesday. The children were rescued by members of the military, firefighters and civil aviation authority officials in the dense jungle of Colombia’s Caqueta province. The plane – a Cessna 206 […]

By Trevor Hunnicutt and John Irish WASHINGTON/PARIS (Reuters) -The longest shadows at the Group of Seven (G7) leaders’ summit this week will be cast by two countries that weren’t even invited to the Hiroshima gathering: China and Russia. As the heads of the world’s advanced democracies meet for three days from Friday in the western Japanese city, they will need to overcome some differences of their own, officials say, as […]

By Matt Tracy (Reuters) -Many U.S. regional lenders may have to consider selling off commercial real estate (CRE) loans at a steep discount after breaching key regulatory thresholds for exposure to the troubled sector, according to new data and market sources. Regional banks, the largest lenders to the beleaguered U.S. CRE and construction markets, have reduced their exposure to the sector by tightening standards and making fewer loans, especially in […]

(Corrects paragraph 13 to show that some of the banks listed had elevated concentration ratios but did not exceed regulatory thresholds) By Matt Tracy (Reuters) – Many U.S. regional lenders may have to consider selling off commercial real estate (CRE) loans at a steep discount after breaching key regulatory thresholds for exposure to the troubled sector, according to new data and market sources. Regional banks, the largest lenders to the […]