Town Hall News

By Melanie Burton MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Shares in Australian-listed lithium miners jumped on Thursday after a $10.6 billion merger in the sector raised expectations for more consolidation among producers of the key metal in electric vehicle batteries. The tie up between Allkem Ltd and Livent announced on Wednesday will create the world’s third-biggest producer of lithium for which demand is expected to soar more than five-fold by 2030 amid the […]

(Reuters) -Ukraine is holding fire until more Western armoured vehicles arrive before it starts its long-awaited counteroffensive to recapture Russian-occupied territory, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an interview released on Thursday. “We still need a bit more time,” Zelenskiy said in the interview with European broadcasters, according to Britain’s BBC. Ukrainian forces had already received enough equipment from Western allies for a campaign, but some of the promised armoured vehicles […]

BEIJING (Reuters) – China has delivered two frigates to Pakistan’s navy, completing a four-warship deal inked in 2018, Chinese media reported, amid deepening military cooperation between the two nations in one of the world’s most complex geopolitical regions. The vessels – two Type 054A frigates – will be used to safeguard the seas of the China-Pakistan economic corridor (CPEC), state-backed Chinese newspaper Global Times reported late on Wednesday. CPEC is […]

By Ted Hesson (Reuters) -The United States is set to lift COVID-19 restrictions on Thursday night that have blocked hundreds of thousands of migrants caught at the U.S.-Mexico border from seeking asylum since 2020, a move that has spurred a spike in illegal crossings and heightened political tensions. WHAT IS TITLE 42? The COVID restrictions, known as Title 42, were first implemented under Republican then-President Donald Trump in March 2020 […]

By Abhirup Roy SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -Rivian Automotive Inc is betting it can keep prices high for its debut lines of electric pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles even when competition swells, its CEO said, a bold move that may be necessary if the startup wants to make a profit. And one some see as risky, since Rivian products will soon face more rivals at a time when market leader Tesla […]

By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA (Reuters) – Israeli air strikes killed the head of Islamic Jihad’s rocket force in Gaza early on Thursday, part of an operation that has killed 25 people including women and children this week and that has been met with hundreds of rockets fired from the enclave. Egypt was set to host senior Islamic Jihad official Mohammad al-Hindi in Cairo later in the day, part of mediation […]

HELSINKI (Reuters) -Around 24 people, a majority of them children, were injured on Thursday when a temporary pedestrian bridge collapsed in the Finnish city of Espoo, just outside the capital Helsinki, rescue service said. The injuries were not life threatening, the Helsinki Hospital Authority said in a statement. The children were part of a group of eighth-grade students returning from a field trip, Finnish daily Helsinging Sanomat reported, quoting a […]

By Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam and Ariba Shahid ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -Pakistani authorities took senior leaders of former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party into custody as the government called out the army to help end widespread and deadly protests sparked by Khan’s arrest. At least three party leaders have been arrested so far, one from outside the Supreme Court late on Wednesday and another, a foreign minister in Khan’s cabinet, early on […]

By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA (Reuters) – Israeli air strikes killed the head of Islamic Jihad’s rocket force in Gaza early on Thursday, part of an operation that has killed 25 people including women and children this week and that has been met with hundreds of rockets fired from the enclave. Egypt was set to host senior Islamic Jihad official Mohammad al-Hindi in Cairo later in the day, part of mediation […]