Town Hall News

By Andrew Osborn MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia’s Foreign Ministry summoned the U.S., British and Canadian ambassadors for a dressing down on Tuesday after they condemned the conviction of an opposition politician for treason. A Moscow court jailed Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza – who holds Russia and British passports – for 25 years after convicting him of treason on Monday in a trial he and the West said was politically motivated. It […]

By Luiza Ilie and Pawel Florkiewicz BUCHAREST/WARSAW (Reuters) -Romania looked set on Tuesday to follow three other countries in banning Ukrainian grain imports, a setback for Kyiv as it tries to unblock exports through eastern Europe and salvage a wartime deal on shipping grain from the Black Sea. Failure to resume exports into eastern European countries or secure an extension of the Black Sea grain deal would trap large amounts […]

LONDON (Reuters) – Environmental groups including Extinction Rebellion, which has previously staged highly disruptive protests across Britain, have vowed new and “creative” campaigns of disobedience unless the government meets their demands over fossil fuels. Extinction Rebellion (XR) said the groups had issued the British government with a demand to end all licences, funding and approval for new fossil fuel projects and to immediately create “emergency citizen assemblies”. If the government […]

(Reuters) -Britain’s competition regulator said on Tuesday it has launched a “Phase 1” probe into Amazon.com Inc’s planned $1.7 billion acquisition of iRobot Corp, which makes the Roomba vacuum cleaner. The probe launch by the UK watchdog comes at a time antitrust regulators, including those in the U.S. and the European Union, have become increasingly wary of giant companies acquiring smaller rivals. The Amazon-iRobot deal – announced in August last […]

(Reuters) – Audi’s preparations to enter Formula One in 2026 are picking up speed and a prototype power unit will run on the test bench before the end of the year, the German manufacturer said on Tuesday. The Volkswagen-owned brand announced last October that it was taking a stake in the Sauber Group, whose Swiss-based team are competing this season as Alfa Romeo with Ferrari engines. Formula One will have […]

By Sarah Morland (Reuters) – U.S. guns, many of them exported legally, are flowing into Latin America in an “iron river” ending in the hands of drug cartels and abusive security forces, activists said Monday, calling for greater oversight from U.S. law and federal agencies. More than half of “crime guns” recovered and traced in Central America are sourced from the United States, according to U.S. gun control agency ATF. […]

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Top shareholder of HSBC renewed its call for breaking up of the Asia-focused bank on Tuesday, saying the lender has failed to address key business model challenges which has resulted in deterioration in its operating performance. Ping An Asset Management Company (Ping An AMC) said in a statement HSBC has “drained” its Asia unit of dividends and growth capital to support its relatively low-return non-Asia businesses. […]

By Greg Bensinger (Reuters) – Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc have raised concerns with Amazon.com Inc after learning that sexually explicit photographs could be accessed by children on the popular Kindle app and called on Amazon to strengthen its content moderation. The warnings were sparked by questions posed by Reuters to spokespeople at the three companies about users’ ability, via the Kindle app, to access and view online volumes of […]

(Reuters) -Britain’s competition regulator said on Tuesday it has launched a “Phase 1” probe into Amazon.com Inc’s planned $1.7 billion acquisition of iRobot Corp, which makes the Roomba vacuum cleaner. The probe launch by the UK watchdog comes at a time antitrust regulators, including those in the U.S. and the European Union, have become increasingly wary of giant companies acquiring smaller rivals. The Amazon-iRobot deal – announced in August last […]