Town Hall News

By Arathy Somasekhar HOUSTON(Reuters) -Oil prices reversed course to trade slightly lower on Wednesday as an unexpected, large build in U.S. crude oil outweighed bullish demand growth forecasts and optimism over the Federal Reserve likely pausing interest rates. Brent crude futures were down 2 cents, or 0.01%, at $74.27 a barrel by 10:52 a.m. ET( 1452 GMT). U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was 14 cents, or 0.2%, lower at […]

By Julie Zhu HONG KONG (Reuters) – Bill Gates, Microsoft Corp’s co-founder, is set to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday during his visit to China, two people with knowledge of the matter said. The meeting will mark Xi’s first meeting with a foreign private entrepreneur in recent years. The people said the encounter may be a one-on-one meeting. A third source confirmed they would meet, without providing details. […]

By Paul Sandle and Clare Jim LONDON/HONG KONG (Reuters) – Vodafone and CK Hutchison finally unveiled the 15 billion pound ($19 billion) merger of their British mobile operations on Wednesday, saying the creation of a new market leader would drive competition and investment in the country. The long-awaited deal, after the two companies disclosed talks in October, will now trigger prolonged scrutiny by the anti-trust regulator into whether an operator […]

By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Alphabet’s Google may have to sell part of its lucrative adtech business to address concerns about anti-competitive practices, EU regulators said on Wednesday, threatening the company with its harshest regulatory penalty to date. The European Commission set out its charges in a statement of objections to Google two years after opening an investigation into behaviours such as favouring its own advertising services, which could […]

NICOSIA (Reuters) -Binance’s Cyprus unit has applied to be removed from Cyprus’ register of crypto asset service providers, the securities regulator website showed on Wednesday, in a move Binance said would allow it to focus on its larger European businesses. It was unclear when Binance applied to deregister. The exchange, the world’s biggest, announced its registration with the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission in October 2022. A source at the […]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden asked the Justice Department to open an antitrust investigation into the planned deal between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, saying they believe it would result in a monopoly over professional golf operations. The Democrats said in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland that the deal “deserves serious and urgent attention by U.S. antitrust agencies. We urge the DOJ […]

By Vitalii Hnidyi STOROZHOVE, Ukraine (Reuters) – The road into the newly liberated Ukrainian village of Storozheve is lined with the corpses of Russian soldiers and burnt-out armoured vehicles. The grisly scenes bear witness to the ferocity of fighting as Ukrainian troops recaptured Storozheve and several other villages in the past few days as part of a counteroffensive in southern and eastern Ukraine. Some of the dead Russian soldiers lay […]

By Jessie Pang HONG KONG (Reuters) – Various versions of the pro-democracy protest anthem “Glory to Hong Kong” were unavailable on Apple’s iTunes Store, Spotify, KKBOX, Facebook and Instagram’s Reels on Wednesday after the government sought an injunction banning the song outright. A Reuters search for the song’s Chinese title on Apple’s iTunes Store and KKBOX and a search for the song’s English title on Facebook and Instagram’s Reels only […]

(Reuters) – England have named their team for the first Ashes test against Australia, which will be played at Edgbaston from Friday. England squad: Ben Duckett, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (captain), Jonathan Bairstow, Moeen Ali, Stuart Broad, Ollie Robinson, James Anderson. (Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Alex Richardson) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com