Reuters

By Fergal Smith

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian manufacturing activity slowed in May, adding to a record-setting period of contraction for the sector, as output and new orders fell at a faster pace and firms reduced their buying activity, data showed on Monday.

The S&P Global Canada Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) edged down to a seasonally adjusted 49.3 in May from 49.4 in April, marking its lowest level since January.

By Mahmoud Issa

JABALIA, Gaza Strip (Reuters) - Palestinian Umm Mohammed Khrouat says she would rather live in a tent than the school where she is forced to shelter with her five children in northern Gaza, so bad are the conditions after nearly eight months of war.

"There is no hygiene, or water," said Umm Mohammed, baking bread in a makeshift oven at the school in Jabalia refugee camp, a recent theatre of Israeli military operations in... (continue reading...)

By Gabriel Burin

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Brazil's economy is forecast to have picked up pace in the first quarter of the year, a Reuters poll showed, driven by an increase in federal outlays that added to stronger household spending and private investment.

The acceleration would mark a noticeable improvement over the second half of 2023, when the economy stalled as consumption and capital spending lagged under the effect of very high... (continue reading...)

LONDON (Reuters) - Two pro-Russian activists in Germany, whose ties to the Kremlin were revealed in a Reuters investigation last year, have left Germany and moved to Russia, the couple’s lawyer said in a statement on Monday.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Elena Kolbasnikova and her romantic partner Max Schlund have been active in Germany, organising pro-Kremlin rallies to urge Berlin to abandon its military support to Kyiv.... (continue reading...)

(Reuters) - A Russian court sentenced a woman to one year and 8 months of "correctional work" on Monday for pouring green dye on ballots cast in the presidential election in March, a regional branch of the state Investigative Committee said.

President Vladimir Putin won a record post-Soviet landslide in elections held on March 15-17, clinching nearly 88% of the vote and an unprecedented fifth term. Western countries and Russian independent vote... (continue reading...)