Town Hall News

(Reuters) -The governor of the giant Russian territory of Krasnoyarsk has quit, authorities said on Thursday, shortly after his businessman son dodged Italian authorities trying to extradite him to the United States and fled to Russia. President Vladimir Putin signed a decree accepting the resignation of Alexander Uss but gave no details. His son, Artem Uss, was due to face charges in the U.S. for shipping oil from Venezuela in […]

By David Lawder and Andrea Shalal WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. seeks “constructive and fair” economic ties with China, but will protect its national security interests and push back against Chinese actions to dominate foreign competitors, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Thursday. Speaking at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, Yellen laid out the Biden administration’s principal objectives for what she called an “essential” economic relationship between the […]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden spoke by phone on Thursday with French President Emmanuel Macron and discussed Macron’s state visit to China, the White House said, a week after Macron’s remarks following the visit raised eyebrows in Washington “They reaffirmed the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. The Presidents also reiterated their steadfast support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s brutal aggression,” the White […]

OTTAWA (Reuters) -Canada has agreed to provide up to C$13 billion ($9.7 billion) in subsidies and a C$700 million grant to lure Volkswagen AG into building its North American battery plant in the country, a government source said on Thursday. The total Canadian investment, which could also include funds from the Ontario government, will largely match what Volkswagen would have got from the United States through the Inflation Reduction Act […]

By Hyunjoo Jin and Akash Sriram (Reuters) – Elon Musk is counting on full-self driving and other new technologies and vehicles at Tesla Inc to provide the “wow factor” that will continue to drive the electric carmaker’s value far beyond its automotive rivals. Some analysts and investors worry that Tesla’s industry-leading market valuation is threatened by factors including price cuts that have undermined its margins, delays in rolling out new […]

KAMPALA (Reuters) -Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni supports a bill containing some of the world’s harshest anti-LGBTQ legislation but will send it back to parliament for “strengthening”, the ruling party’s chief whip said. A group of lawmakers from Museveni’s National Resistance Movement (NRM) discussed the bill with the president and agreed in principle to make it law, chief whip Denis Hamson Obua said. “Before that is done we also agree that […]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States is preparing to send a large number of additional troops to its base in Djibouti in case of an eventual evacuation from Sudan, a U.S. official said as renewed heavy gunfire erupted on Thursday. The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, declined to elaborate. Forces commanded by two previously allied leaders of Sudan’s ruling council began a violent power struggle last weekend that […]

(Reuters) -Alphabet Inc is combining Google Brain and DeepMind, as it doubles down on artificial intelligence research in its race to compete with rival systems like OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot. The new division will be led by DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis and its setting up will ensure “bold and responsible development of general AI”, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in a blog post on Thursday. Alphabet said the teams that are […]

BERLIN (Reuters) – Arms makers Lockheed Martin and Rheinmetall will team up to develop a German rocket artillery system, they said on Thursday, a weapon in the same category as the HIMARS rocket launchers Lockheed has been supplying to Ukraine. HIMARS is a missile launcher mounted on a truck that can fire multiple guided missiles in quick succession. Missiles supplied to Ukraine have a range of up to 50 miles […]