Town Hall News

By Max Hunder DNIPROPETROVSK REGION, Ukraine (Reuters) – Ukrainian soldiers training for a counteroffensive against Russian forces said on Monday they felt ready to launch the assault which they hope will end the war. Members of the 128th Mountain Assault Brigade practiced setting up and packing away their mortars as the sun beat down on them in fields in the southern region of Dnipropetrovsk. “We are getting ready for the […]

By Amina Ismail and Lisa Barrington ERBIL, Iraq/DUBAI (Reuters) – The prospect of Tayyip Erdogan winning another presidential term in Turkey would once have rung alarms around the Middle East, but after taking a more conciliatory stance in recent years his strong election showing on Sunday has caused few flutters. Erdogan secured just under half the votes and looks well placed for the May 28 runoff against opposition leader Kemal […]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States is seeing more indications that Russia and Iran are expanding an unprecedented defense partnership that will help Moscow prolong its war in Ukraine as well as pose a threat to Iran’s neighbors, the White House said on Monday. As part of the cooperation, Iran is providing Russia with one-way attack drones, including more than 400 since August, national security adviser John Kirby said at a […]

By Andrew Osborn LONDON (Reuters) -Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya told her supporters on Monday to be ready to grab any chance to turn her country into a democracy as speculation about the health of veteran President Alexander Lukashenko swirled. Shortly after her message to supporters via Twitter, a Belarusian state news channel released a photo of Lukashenko, 68, at what it said was a military command centre in […]

By Sarah N. Lynch and Tyler Clifford WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Migrant crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border have unexpectedly fallen, not risen, since Title 42 curbs expired and reinstating criminal penalties for illegal entry is likely the biggest reason, the Biden administration said on Sunday. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said border patrol agents have seen a 50% drop in the number of migrants crossing the border since Thursday, when President […]

DUBAI (Reuters) – Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud met his German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, in Jeddah on Monday, the Saudi foreign ministry wrote on Twitter. The German foreign ministry had said earlier that Baerbock, who will also visit Qatar next, would discuss bilateral issues as well as questions of regional crises with Gulf counterparts. “In view of the numerous challenges in the region, from the acute […]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States is seeing more indications that Russia and Iran are expanding an unprecedented defense partnership that will help Moscow prolong its war in Ukraine as well as pose a threat to Iran’s neighbors, the White House said on Monday. As part of the cooperation, Iran is providing Russia with one-way attack drones, including more than 400 since august, national security adviser John Kirby said at […]

Raphael Bostic, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, said Monday he does not expect any interest-rate cuts this year because inflation is likely to be stickier than those in markets believe, and if anything “we may have to go up”. “The appropriate policy is really just to wait and see how much the economy slows from the policy actions that we’ve had,” Bostic told CNBC, noting that […]

By David Lawder and Susan Heavey WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary on Monday dismissed the idea of minting a platinum coin as a way to avoid a U.S. default, saying the only workable solution was for Congress to raise the federal debt ceiling. Asked in a National Public Radio interview about the possibility of minting a $1 trillion platinum coin to circumvent the debt ceiling, Adeyemo said […]