Town Hall News

(Reuters) – Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza was jailed by a Moscow court on Monday for 25 years for treason and other offences – which he denies committing – after speaking out against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and lobbying for Western sanctions on Moscow. GRAIN * Ukraine said a U.N.-brokered initiative allowing the safe Black Sea export of its grain was in danger of “shutdown” after Russia blocked inspections of participating […]

By Khalid Abdelaziz and Nafisa Eltahir KHARTOUM (Reuters) -Sudan’s battling factions both claimed to have made gains on Monday as continued violence cut power and water in the capital, and the U.N. envoy to Sudan said the two sides showed no signs of being willing to negotiate. Fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has killed at least 185 people and injured more than 1,800, said […]

By Joe Skipper and Steve Gorman BOCA CHICA, Texas (Reuters) -Elon Musk’s SpaceX called off the highly anticipated debut launch of its newly combined Starship cruise vessel and Super Heavy rocket in the final minutes of countdown due to a frozen valve, delaying the uncrewed test flight for at least two days.     The two-stage rocketship, standing taller than the Statue of Liberty at 394 feet (120 m) high, was […]

By Jasper Ward (Reuters) -A Kansas City man was charged with two felonies on Monday in the shooting of a Black teenager who was wounded after walking up to the wrong house when going to pick up his younger twin brothers. Andrew Lester, an 85-year-old white man, was charged with first degree assault and armed criminal action for shooting Ralph Yarl, 16, on the doorstep of his suburban home around […]

By Khalid Abdelaziz and Nafisa Eltahir KHARTOUM (Reuters) -Sudan’s battling factions both claimed to have made gains on Monday as continued violence cut power and water in the capital, and the U.N. envoy to Sudan said the two sides showed no signs of being willing to negotiate. Fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has killed at least 185 people and injured more than 1,800, said […]

By Lisandra Paraguassu and Anthony Boadle BRASILIA (Reuters) -Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva drew criticism from the United States on Monday for his recent comments suggesting the West had been “encouraging” war by arming Ukraine, while he was praised by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for his proposal for peace talks. Lavrov, on a visit to Brasilia, met with Lula and thanked Brazil for its efforts to resolve […]

By Luc Cohen NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. law enforcement officials on Monday arrested two New York residents for allegedly operating a Chinese “secret police station” in Manhattan’s Chinatown, part of a crackdown on Beijing’s alleged targeting of U.S.-based dissidents. Lu Jianwang, 61, and Chen Jinping, 59, face charges of conspiring to act as agents of China’s government without informing U.S. authorities and obstruction of justice. They were released on bond […]

By Kevin Yao BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s gross domestic product likely gathered pace in the first quarter, data is expected to show on Tuesday, as the end of strict COVID curbs lifted the world’s second-largest economy out of a crippling pandemic slump, although some headwinds persist. GDP is tipped to have risen 4.0% in January-March from a year earlier, a Reuters poll showed, quickening from 2.9% in the fourth quarter. […]

By Kevin Yao BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s gross domestic product likely gathered pace in the first quarter, data is expected to show on Tuesday, as the end of strict COVID curbs lifted the world’s second-largest economy out of a crippling pandemic slump, although some headwinds persist. GDP is tipped to have risen 4.0% in January-March from a year earlier, a Reuters poll showed, quickening from 2.9% in the fourth quarter. […]