Town Hall News

TOKYO, Dec 5 (Reuters) – Japanese household spending unexpectedly fell 3.0% in October from a year earlier, government data showed on Friday, worse than the median market forecast for a 1.0% rise. On a seasonally adjusted, month-on-month basis, spending dropped 3.5%, versus an estimated 0.7% uptick, internal affairs ministry data showed.  The indicator will be among factors the Bank of Japan (BOJ) will scrutinise in deciding whether to raise interest […]

WASHINGTON, Dec 4 (Reuters) – The Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday it has picked Peraton, a national security company owned by Veritas Capital, to become the project manager of a $12.5 billion effort to overhaul the aging U.S. air traffic control system. In September, the FAA confirmed it had received two bids for the job — Peraton and a joint bid by Parsons and IBM. The FAA said Peraton will […]

Dec 5 (Reuters) – Ukraine’s military said late on Thursday its forces had struck a large chemical plant in Stavropol region in southern Russia, triggering a fire. The military’s General Staff, writing on Telegram, said the Nevinnomyssky Azot plant was hit overnight on Thursday and added the facility produced components for explosives. It described it as one of the largest such plants in Russia. There was no immediate reaction from […]

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning people to stop using certain types of glucose monitor sensors after the company that makes them, Abbott Diabetes Care, said the devices were linked to seven deaths and more than 700 injuries. Certain FreeStyle Libre 3 and FreeStyle Libre 3 Plus sensors may provide incorrect low glucose readings, FDA officials said this week. Such readings over an extended period may lead people […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI has arrested a suspect five years after an unidentified person placed two pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic national parties in Washington. Agents arrested Brian J. Cole Jr., 30, of Woodbridge, Virginia, on explosive charges. Calls to relatives of Cole listed in public records were not immediately returned. The mystery behind the person’s identity has bedeviled law enforcement and helped fuel […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday came to the rescue of Texas Republicans, allowing next year’s elections to be held under the state’s congressional redistricting plan favorable to the GOP and pushed by President Donald Trump despite a lower-court ruling that the map likely discriminates on the basis of race. The justices acted on an emergency request from Texas for quick action because qualifying in the new districts […]

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri appeals court panel ordered new wording Thursday for a ballot measure seeking to roll back abortion rights in the state, ruling that voters must be told the amendment would repeal “reproductive healthcare rights” they approved just one year ago. The ruling marks the latest twist in a lengthy battle over Missouri’s abortion laws, which have fluctuated from restrictive to permissive since the U.S. […]

Washington (AP) — House Speaker Mike Johnson is imploring his fellow Republicans to stop venting their frustrations in public and bring their complaints to him directly. “They’re going to get upset about things. That’s part of the process,” Johnson told reporters Thursday. “It doesn’t bother me. But when there is a conflict or concern, I always ask all members to come to me, don’t go to social media.” Increasingly, they’re […]

MORRO BAY, Calif. (AP) — On a jagged coastline in Central California, brown pelicans gather on rock promontories, packed in like edgy commuters as they take flight to feed on a vast school of fish just offshore. The water churns in whitecaps as the big-billed birds plunge beneath the surface in search of northern anchovies, Pacific sardines and mackerel. If awkward and wobbly in appearance on land, they are graceful […]