Town Hall News

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korean authorities have ordered the culling of several hundred cattle and put in place biosecurity measures after confirming cases of foot and mouth disease in farms in a central province, the ministry of agriculture said. The cases mark the first confirmed outbreak since January 2019, according to media reports. The current contagion occurred in three farms in Cheongju in North Chungcheong province, south of the capital […]

By Hyonhee Shin SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea on Thursday lowered its crisis level for COVID-19 and will from June no longer require infected people to quarantine for seven days, dropping one of the country’s few remaining pandemic-related restrictions. Health authorities will still recommend five days of self-isolation for infected people but it will not be mandatory. “I am glad that people will be able to resume normal life after […]

By Mike Blake and Ted Hesson SAN DIEGO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Thousands of migrants are crossing into the United States this week before a new regulation takes effect that could bar most who cross illegally from seeking asylum, while others gathered on the Mexico side amid confusion about U.S. policy. The U.S. rolled out a regulation on Wednesday that presumes most migrants are ineligible for asylum if they passed through other nations […]

By Hyonhee Shin SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea on Thursday lowered its crisis level for COVID-19 and will from June no longer require infected people to quarantine for seven days, dropping one of the country’s few remaining pandemic-related restrictions. Health authorities will still recommend five days of self-isolation for infected people but it will not be mandatory. “I am glad that people will be able to resume normal life after […]

(Reuters) -A Ukrainian unit said on Wednesday it had routed a Russian brigade near the stronghold of Bakhmut in an incident underlining the task facing the Kremlin as it carries out what it calls a “very difficult” military operation.     The unit’s claim appeared to buttress comments by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner private army, who on Tuesday said the Russian brigade had abandoned its positions in Bakhmut, […]

By Tim Reid (Reuters) – Republican former President Donald Trump on Wednesday played down the severity of a potential U.S. government default, saying the consequences of a failure by Congress to raise the nation’s debt limit “could be maybe nothing.” Most economists warn that a failure to raise the debt ceiling by June 1, when the U.S. Treasury says the government will start to run out of money to meet […]

By Francesco Guarascio (Reuters) -A Chinese research vessel flanked by coast guard and nearly a dozen boats on Wednesday entered a gas block operated by Russian and Vietnamese state firms, two monitoring groups said, another potential flashpoint in the South China Sea. It follows a pattern of assertive moves of late by Beijing in its neighbours’ exclusive economic zones (EEZ), as it presses its claim to sovereignty over almost the […]

SHANGHAI/BERLIN (Reuters) – Automakers including Volkswagen and General Motors could have considerable unused production capacity for conventionally powered vehicles in China by 2030 if they do not speed up their transition to electric vehicles (EV), Greenpeace said on Thursday. As demand for new energy vehicles (NEV) – including fully electric and plug-in hybrid cars – grows, new NEV-only producers such as BYD will take market share and leave legacy automakers […]

By Leika Kihara (Reuters) -Bank of Japan policymakers debated the country’s progress towards achieving their inflation target and the pace at which they could roll back stimulus at new governor Kazuo Ueda’s debut meeting in April, a summary of opinions at the meeting showed. Some in the board also flagged the side-effects of the BOJ’s bond yield control and possible repercussions in case it raises interest rates in the future, […]