Town Hall News

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis spent a “peaceful” night in hospital after a surgery, the Vatican said. Pope Francis underwent a three-hour operation in a Rome hospital on Wednesday to repair a hernia, which doctors said was successful enough that he should have no limitations on his travels and other activities after he recovers (Reporting by Federica Urso, editing Gianluca Semeraro) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

By Francesco Guarascio and Phuong Nguyen HANOI (Reuters) – Two Chinese makers of energy storage systems and batteries are weighing investments worth hundreds of millions of dollars in Vietnam, industry and government sources said. The combined value of the investments could exceed $1 billion, according to one person with direct knowledge of the discussions. A growing number of Chinese companies are launching or expanding manufacturing projects in Vietnam, a global […]

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. “It’s […]

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 […]