Town Hall News

By Yuka Obayashi TOKYO (Reuters) – Oil prices rose on Tuesday as the expectations the debt ceiling deal in U.S., the world’s biggest oil user, will spur more demand but fears of further interest rate rises and that OPEC+ will leave output quotas unchanged capped gains. Brent crude futures climbed 35 cents, or 0.5%, to $77.42 a barrel by 0145 GMT after gaining 12 cents on Monday. U.S. West Texas […]

BEIJING (Reuters) – China on Tuesday sent three astronauts to its now fully operational space station as part of crew rotation, according to state media, in the fifth manned mission to the Chinese space outpost since 2021. The spacecraft, Shenzhou-16, or “Divine Vessel”, and its three passengers lifted off atop a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi Desert in northwest China at 9.31 a.m. […]

By Yuka Obayashi TOKYO (Reuters) – Oil prices rose on Tuesday as the expectations the debt ceiling deal in U.S., the world’s biggest oil user, will spur more demand but fears of further interest rate rises and that OPEC+ will leave output quotas unchanged capped gains. Brent crude futures climbed 35 cents, or 0.5%, to $77.42 a barrel by 0145 GMT after gaining 12 cents on Monday. U.S. West Texas […]

(Reuters) – Qantas Airways on Tuesday forecasted a higher capital expenditure guidance for fiscal 2024 as the company aims to add to its fleet. Australia’s flagship carrier expects its capex in 2024 to be between A$3 billion ($2.03 billion) to A$3.2 billion, compared to its outlook of A$2.6 billion to A$2.7 billion for fiscal 2023. ($1 = 1.4743 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Navya Mittal in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber) […]

(Reuters) – Qantas Airways on Tuesday forecasted a higher capital expenditure guidance for fiscal 2024 as the company aims to add to its fleet. Australia’s flagship carrier expects its capex in 2024 to be between A$3 billion ($2.03 billion) to A$3.2 billion, compared to its outlook of A$2.6 billion to A$2.7 billion for fiscal 2023. ($1 = 1.4743 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Navya Mittal in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber) […]

By Lewis Jackson SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian senators will use parliamentary hearings this week to demand accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) name staff and clients who were in on the “big four” firm’s misuse of confidential government tax plans. The staff and clients were referenced in a cache of partially redacted emails released amid a scandal over a former partner at PwC who shared confidential information with colleagues on government plans […]

By Dan Peleschuk and Valentyn Ogirenko KYIV (Reuters) – Russia launched a fresh “massive” wave of attacks on Kyiv in the early hours of Tuesday and air defence systems were engaging incoming targets, city officials said, as air raid sirens blared in several other regions. “A massive attack!” Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app. “Do not leave shelters.” Kyiv’s military administration officials said that air defence systems […]

KAMPALA (Reuters) – Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni signed one of the world’s toughest anti-LGBTQ laws, including the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality”, drawing Western condemnation and risking sanctions from aid donors. Same-sex relations were already illegal in Uganda, as in more than 30 African countries, but the new law goes further. It stipulates capital punishment for “serial offenders” against the law and transmission of a terminal illness like HIV/AIDS through […]

(Reuters) – Uganda has implemented one of the world’s toughest anti-LGBTQ laws, drawing widespread Western condemnation and outraging activists at home. Below is some reaction: CLARE BYARUGABA, UGANDAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST “The Ugandan President has today Legalised State Sponsored Homophobia and Transphobia. It’s a very dark and sad day … We shall continue to fight this atrocious legislation through the Judiciary until Human Rights for all are upheld. We shall win, […]