Town Hall News

By Nick Carey and Alistair Smout LONDON (Reuters) – Britain could lose out on investments in autonomous vehicles (AVs) and see startups shift testing elsewhere if promised laws to regulate the technology are not passed before the next general election, startups and insurance companies said. Despite the government’s vision to be a world leader in AV technology, truly driverless cars are not currently permitted on Britain’s roads, making it difficult […]

By Jeslyn Lerh SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Oil prices dipped on Thursday as worries about weakening demand due to the global economic slowdown overshadowed a pending fall in supply with Saudi Arabia’s pledged output cuts. Brent crude futures fell 6 cents, or 0.1%, to $76.89 a barrel at 0640 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures eased 6 cents, or 0.1%, to $72.49. Both benchmarks settled up by about 1% on […]

LONDON (Reuters) – Asset manager Just Climate said on Thursday it had raised $1.5 billion for its inaugural fund after strong demand from institutional clients including Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund helped it beat the original target of $1 billion. Established by Generation Investment Management, Just Climate aims to focus investment on the sectors where cutting greenhouse gas emissions is hardest to do, such as cement, shipping, industrials and land use. […]

LONDON (Reuters) – European low-cost airline Wizz Air said it would make a net profit of 350 million to 450 million euros in its current financial year, as strong demand for travel and its expanding fleet put it on track for growth. That outcome would represent a significant improvement on the 12 months to the end of March when Hungary-headquartered Wizz posted a net loss of 535 million euros ($572.8 […]

By Elaine Lies TOKYO (Reuters) -A Japanese court on Thursday said a ban on same-sex marriage was constitutional but raised concerns about the dignity and human rights of same-sex couples, a ruling short of activists’ expectations but still seen as a step forward. The ruling by the Fukuoka district court came a week after another district court said it was unconstitutional to ban same-sex marriage, bolstering hopes for change among […]

By Marc Jones LONDON (Reuters) -Turkey’s lira took a 7% nosedive on Wednesday as the country’s newly re-elected government appeared to be abandoning its costly 18-month strategy of keeping the currency on a tight leash by any means necessary. Ankara has seen decades of financial market difficulties and the charts below show the challenges the lira’s weakness poses for the country’s new economic decision makers. 1/LET IT GO? A combination […]

By Nick Carey and Alistair Smout LONDON (Reuters) – Britain could lose out on investments in autonomous vehicles (AVs) and see startups shift testing elsewhere if promised laws to regulate the technology are not passed before the next general election, startups and insurance companies said. Despite the government’s vision to be a world leader in AV technology, truly driverless cars are not currently permitted on Britain’s roads, making it difficult […]

By Guy Faulconbridge MOSCOW (Reuters) – For more than 15 months Russia has been fighting a war in Ukraine that the Kremlin refused to call a war – but that is changing: President Vladimir Putin is using the word “war” more often. When Putin sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24 last year, he called it “a special military operation” – a euphemism the Kremlin, Russian ministers and state media […]

By Dan Peleschuk POLTAVA, Ukraine (Reuters) – In peacetime, Viktor Tkachenko tracks local tenders, court registries and other open sources for a news outlet in central Ukraine. These days, the reserved 33-year-old fills a spreadsheet with the names of Ukrainian soldiers from Poltava region killed since Russia’s full-scale invasion began – 1,072 at last count – which is used in regular round-ups that typically contain between 10 and 40 names. […]