Town Hall News

By Kirsty Needham and Lewis Jackson SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s Trade Minister will travel to Beijing on Thursday to meet his Chinese counterpart, as Canberra pushes for the removal of all trade impediments and diplomatic relations stabilise. In a statement, Trade Minister Don Farrell said he would meet with China’s Commerce Minister Wang Wentao in Beijing and “be advocating strongly for the full resumption of unimpeded Australian exports to China […]

By Jeffrey Dastin and Greg Bensinger MOUNTAIN VIEW, California (Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s Google rolled out more artificial intelligence for its core search product, hoping to create some of the same consumer excitement generated by Microsoft Corp’s relaunch of rival search engine Bing in recent months. At its annual I/O conference in Mountain View, California, on Wednesday, Google offered an updated version of its namesake engine. Called the Search Generative […]

By MacDonald Dzirutwe LAGOS (Reuters) – A British university has postponed the return of more than 100 Benin Bronzes to Nigeria after a presidential decree named a royal ruler as the owner and custodian of all returned artefacts, the head of museums and monuments said on Wednesday. Nigeria is on a quest to get thousands of intricate bronze sculptures and castings that were looted by British soldiers during a raid […]

By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic and Republican U.S. senators introduced legislation on Wednesday to overhaul the vast security clearance system for protecting national secrets, spurred by damaging document leaks allegedly by a 21-year-old airman and the discovery of classified materials at top officials’ homes. Led by Democratic Senator Mark Warner, chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, the lawmakers said the current system classifies far too many documents and […]

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Maayan Lubell GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Egypt began mediating an end to two days of cross-border fighting in Gaza on Wednesday that saw Israel’s air force hit Islamic Jihad targets and Palestinian militants in the enclave launch salvoes of rockets across the border as far as Tel Aviv. The second round of cross-border fire in a week came after Israel launched strikes on Tuesday against three Islamic […]

By Nia Williams (Reuters) – An intense start to wildfire season in Canada’s main oil province Alberta has put Premier Danielle Smith’s disaster management skills – as well as her party’s policies – under the microscope ahead of the provincial election on May 29. The election in the traditionally conservative province is expected to be a tight two-horse race and will have a significant bearing on Liberal Prime Minister Justin […]

By Chris Prentice and Michelle Price WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. accounting watchdog found unacceptable deficiencies in audits of U.S.-listed Chinese companies performed by KPMG in China and PricewaterhouseCoopers in Hong Kong, the government agency said on Wednesday. The U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB)published the findings of its inspections after gaining access to Chinese company auditors’ records for the first time last year following more than a decade […]

KYIV (Reuters) -A Ukrainian military unit said on Wednesday it had routed a Russian infantry brigade from frontline territory near Bakhmut, claiming to confirm an account by the head of Russia’s Wagner private army that the Russian forces had fled. Later in the day, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, who heads Ukraine’s ground forces, said Russian units in some parts of Bakhmut had retreated by up to 2 km (1.2 miles) […]

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Dan Williams GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel’s air force hit Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza for a second day on Wednesday and Palestinian militants in the enclave launched rockets across the border, sending residents to shelter as far away as Tel Aviv. The second round of cross-border fire in a week came after Israel launched strikes on Tuesday against three Islamic Jihad commanders it said had planned attacks […]