Town Hall News

By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA (Reuters) – A young Gaza man who saw his fiancee for the last time only minutes before she was killed in an Israeli air strike on Tuesday said they spent their final moments discussing how they would pose together for their engagement photo. “I left her 15 minutes before she was martyred,” 19 year-old Mohammad Saed told Reuters, in the wrecked room of his fiancee’s family’s […]

By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The annual increase in U.S. consumer prices slowed to below 5% in April for the first time in two years, while a key inflation measure monitored by the Federal Reserve subsided, potentially providing cover for the central bank to pause further interest rates hike next month.  Nevertheless, inflation remains too strong, with the report from the Labor Department on Wednesday showing monthly consumer prices […]

(Reuters) – First Citizen BancShares Inc on Wednesday reported a gain of $9.82 billion in the first quarter from its acquisition of failed lender Silicon Valley Bank in March. The windfall helped drive a surge in its profit to $9.50 billion, or $653.64 per share, for the three months ended March 31 from $264 million, or $16.70 per share, a year earlier. The Raleigh, North Carolina-based lender’s first-quarter deposits stood […]

By Jarrett Renshaw and Timothy Gardner WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The White House on Wednesday called on Congress to pass permitting legislation that would help speed up clean energy and fossil fuel projects, betting that the bipartisan measure may help end a standoff on the debt ceiling. The renewed push on permitting reform comes the day after President Joe Biden met with top Republican and Democratic lawmakers for the first time in […]

ROME (Reuters) – The Italian government has not yet taken a decision on whether to leave the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) deal with China and is reviewing its options, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Wednesday. Italy joined the ambitious BRI programme in 2019, despite protests from the United States. The pact comes up for renewal at the end of the year and Meloni said parliament would be involved […]

MOMBASA, Kenya (Reuters) -A Kenyan court on Wednesday denied bail for cult leader Paul Mackenzie, who authorities say ordered followers to starve their children and themselves to death, and extended his detention by 30 days. The death toll climbed to 145 from 133 announced on Tuesday, and hundreds of people are still missing. Authorities are searching for remains in shallow graves scattered throughout a forest where Mackenzie’s followers were living. […]

By Richard Cowan and Katharine Jackson WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Talks on raising the U.S. federal government’s $31.4 trillion debt ceiling enter a new phase on Wednesday, after Democratic President Joe Biden and top congressional Republican Kevin McCarthy’s first negotiating meeting in three months. Time is tight to avoid a historic and economically destabilizing default, which the Treasury Department has warned could come as soon as June 1, but some areas […]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will testify before a Senate panel next week as the U.S. Congress grapples with how best to regulate artificial intelligence as the technology becomes more powerful and widespread. Altman will testify before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology & the Law on Tuesday on what laws might be needed to safeguard Americans as government and companies begin to use AI in everything […]

By Kirsty Needham SYDNEY (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden will sign defence and surveillance agreements with Papua New Guinea, the island nation’s foreign minister said, on a visit that renews the strategic importance of the nation where Biden’s uncle died in World War Two. PNG, the South Pacific’s most populous nation, will also see a doubling of U.S. development assistance to $32 million, including $25 million to tackle its security […]