Town Hall News

By Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro, Amy-Jo Crowley and Andres Gonzalez LONDON (Reuters) – U.S. buyout house Blackstone is weighing options for Dutch merchant bank NIBC, including a possible sale, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The fund manager has been informally sounding out other banks and potential financial buyers to gauge their appetite, said the people, who declined to be named discussing private matters. Deliberations are preliminary and may not […]

(Reuters) -U.S. oil refiner HF Sinclair Corp beat first-quarter profit estimates on Thursday, as margins spiked from a year earlier amid tight supplies and robust demand. Refiners in the United States have benefited from favorable pricing and demand as global supplies remain tight after Western sanctions on Russia, while pandemic-era closures have resulted in low refined product inventories and boosted margins. HF Sinclair, formerly known as HollyFrontier, said its gross […]

(Reuters) – Cristiano Ronaldo’s hopes of winning the Saudi league title with Al-Nassr were given a shot in the arm on Wednesday when leaders Ittihad lost 2-1 to Al-Taawoun. Ittihad are still in the driver’s seat on 59 points, three ahead of Al Nassr, with five games left to play. Ittihad also have the upper hand in the head-to-head record between the sides this season. Fahd Al-Rashidi scored once in […]

(Reuters) – Russia said on Thursday that the United States was behind what it says was a drone attack on the Kremlin that aimed to kill President Vladimir Putin, while Moscow’s forces fired more combat drones at Ukrainian cities including the capital Kyiv. FIGHTING * Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine would launch a counteroffensive soon against occupying Russian forces. * Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of Russia’s Wagner Group mercenary force, […]

By Alexander Marrow MOSCOW (Reuters) – Already Russia’s dominant lender, state-owned Sberbank has become one of the country’s leading technology players, taking on an increasingly important role as sanctions and exiting rivals create gaps only a handful of firms can fill. Once a Soviet savings behemoth, Sberbank’s image has gradually been transformed under CEO German Gref, who has overseen investments into artificial intelligence, cloud services, big data and smart devices. […]

By Zeba Siddiqui and Christopher Bing SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Miami-based digital marketing firm was behind a series of covert political influence operations in Latin America over the last year, Facebook-owner Meta said this week, a rare exposé of an apparent U.S.-based misinformation-for-hire outfit. Predictvia, which is registered as a business in Florida, says on its website that it stands on the “front line of the fight against misinformation” […]

MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) – Bayern Munich want as few distractions as possible as they look to salvage a disappointing season by at least retaining their Bundesliga title, delaying a much-anticipated board meeting until after the end of the season. The Bavarians were in the running for three titles as recently as late March when coach Thomas Tuchel replaced Julian Nagelsmann but are now only left with a possible league crown. […]

By Richard Cowan WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A fresh push for bipartisan immigration reforms, coupled with enhanced border security, is emerging in the U.S. Congress, as thousands of migrants amass across the border in Mexico with the end of Title 42 controls next week. It has been 37 years since Congress passed significant immigration reform, but a persistently high volume of migrants and an acute labor shortage have galvanized lawmakers. At […]

(Reuters) – The Kremlin said on Thursday that it knew Pope Francis was thinking about ways to end the conflict in Ukraine, but that it was not aware of any detailed peace plans from the Vatican. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Francis has offered to act as a broker between Moscow and Kyiv and called for peace on practically a weekly basis. He said last Sunday that the […]