By Mike Scarcella WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) bid to temporarily block Microsoft’s $69 billion purchase of “Call of Duty” maker Activision Blizzard must clear some key hurdles to succeed, legal experts said. U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley on Tuesday gave the go-ahead to the largest-ever gaming industry deal, rejecting…
By Chayut Setboonsarng and Panarat Thepgumpanat BANGKOK (Reuters) -Thailand’s Move Forward party filed a motion in parliament on Friday seeking to curb the power of the military-appointed Senate, a day after the body thwarted its party leader’s bid to become prime minister. The role of the 249-member Senate in deciding a prime minister along with…
By David Milliken LONDON (Reuters) – More than a quarter of Britain’s single parent households have recently run out of food and been unable to afford more, according to a survey from the country’s statistics agency which highlights the impact of surging inflation. Out of nearly 15,000 households surveyed between Feb. 8 and May 1,…
PRAGUE (Reuters) – The Czech parliament’s lower house gave initial backing on Friday to the centre-right government’s package of spending cuts and tax hikes aimed at cutting the budget deficit in the next two years. The country’s public sector deficit has soared in recent years amid spending during the coronavirus pandemic, subsidies to shield the…
By Sam Tobin LONDON (Reuters) -Kevin Spacey described an allegation he grabbed a man’s crotch as “absolute bollocks” on Friday, in combative exchanges with prosecutors at the Oscar-winning actor’s sexual assault trial. Spacey, 63, has pleaded not guilty at London’s Southwark Crown Court to 12 charges of sexual offences allegedly committed against four men in…
By Catarina Demony and Miguel Pereira LISBON (Reuters) – Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel promised on Friday his country would take part “very constructively” in a European Union summit next week with Latin America and the Caribbean, just days after the EU’s parliament called for sanctions against him. Diaz-Canel met his Portuguese counterpart Marcelo Rebelo de…
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that he is in agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin that a deal allowing the Black Sea export of Ukraine grain should be extended. Speaking to reporters, Erdogan said that the deal will hopefully be extended from its current July 17 deadline as results of…
By Guy Faulconbridge MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin offered Wagner mercenaries the opportunity to keep fighting at a meeting just days after their failed mutiny but suggested Yevgeny Prigozhin be moved aside in favour of a different commander, the Kommersant newspaper said. Putin initially said he would crush the June 23-24 mutiny, comparing it…
By Andrew Osborn MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia accused the West on Friday of sponsoring “nuclear terrorism” after authorities said a Ukrainian drone had struck the western Russian town of Kurchatov, where a nuclear power station similar to the ill-fated Chernobyl plant is located. Roman Starovoit, the governor of Russia’s Kursk region which borders Ukraine, said…
By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -North Korea’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) was an exercise of its right to self-defense “to deter dangerous military moves of hostile forces and safeguard the security of our state,” the country’s U.N. envoy told the Security Council on Thursday during a rare appearance. The 15-member Security…
