Town Hall News

By Karen Lema and Neil Jerome Morales MANILA (Reuters) – Maritime issues between the Philippines and China remain a “serious concern”, a Philippine official said on Friday, as the countries pledged to use diplomacy to resolve differences peacefully during high-level talks. The Philippines hosted this week the first in-person meeting between diplomats from the countries since before the pandemic, amid a flare-up in tensions over what Manila described as China’s […]

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s GEM Co Ltd, a battery and material recycler, has signed a joint venture agreement with SK On and ECOPRO Materials to set up a plant in South Korea to meet the conditions of the U.S.Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), it said on Friday. The joint venture would aim to invest about 1.21 trillion won ($932.56 million) between 2023 and 2026 to build a factory with a minimum […]

By YP Rajesh and Krishn Kaushik NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has never been a minister in a federal or state government, has not led his Congress party to a general election victory, and quit as party chief after it was demolished in the last parliamentary polls in 2019. Yet he remains at the centre of India’s opposition politics and the main target of Prime Minister […]

By Rupam Jain and Shivam Patel NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India’s opposition Congress party suffered a major blow on Friday when parliament disqualified its leader, Rahul Gandhi, a day after a court convicted him of defamation for comments that many Indians deemed insulting to the prime minister. Gandhi “stands disqualified from the membership of Lok Sabha from the date of his conviction”, parliament said in a notice, referring to the lower […]

PARIS (Reuters) – France will ban the use of Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok on the work phones of civil servants, Civil Service Minister Stanislas Guerini said on his Twitter account. “In order to guaratne the cybersecurity of our administrations and civil servants, the government has decided to ban recreational applications such as TikTok on the professional phones of civil servants,” he said in a statement. (Reporting by GV De Clercq; […]

TUNIS (Reuters) – Weeks after a violent crackdown on migrants in Tunisia that triggered a perilous rush to leave by smuggler boats for Italy, many African nationals are still homeless and jobless and some say they still face racist attacks.  Outside the United Nations refugee agency in Tunis, dozens of African migrants stood protesting this week by the temporary camp where they have lived, including with children, since authorities urged […]

PODGORICA (Reuters) -Montenegrin police on Friday formally charged Do Kwon, the cryptocurrency entrepreneur behind two digital currencies that lost an estimated $40 billion or more last year, for forging official documents after arresting him on Podgorica airport. Do Kwon, a South Korean national, and a second suspect have been held on Thursday while trying to board a flight to Dubai at Podgorica airport. Police said in a statement they had […]

(Reuters) – Russia’s defence ministry said on Friday that the use of depleted uranium shells in Ukraine would harm Ukrainian troops, the wider population and negatively affect the country’s agriculture sector for decades or even centuries. Russia has reacted furiously to plans outlined by Britain earlier this week to send shells containing depleted uranium to Ukraine. London says they are a conventional form of ammunition, but President Vladimir Putin said […]

(Reuters) – Russia’s defence ministry said on Friday that the use of depleted uranium shells in Ukraine would harm Ukrainian troops, the wider population and negatively affect the country’s agriculture sector for decades or even centuries. Russia has reacted furiously to plans outlined by Britain earlier this week to send shells containing depleted uranium to Ukraine. London says they are a conventional form of ammunition, but President Vladimir Putin said […]