Town Hall News

By Byron Kaye and Lewis Jackson SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s Westpac Banking Corp said it will refinance loans for some borrowers who don’t meet an industry standard that assesses their ability to repay, putting pressure on the bank regulator to relax guidelines after a year of interest rate hikes. The country’s No. 2 mortgage provider has told mortgage brokers that “if a customer is unable to meet serviceability under the […]

(Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is on his way to the Arab League meeting in Saudi Arabia, a source familiar with the meeting told Reuters. Zelenskiy will then travel on to the G7 meeting in Hiroshima in Japan from the Saudi city of Jeddah on a French government plane, the source told Reuters. (Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Rachel Armstrong; Editing by Hugh Lawson) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

(Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is on his way to the Arab League meeting in Saudi Arabia, a source familiar with the meeting told Reuters. Zelenskiy will then travel on to the G7 meeting in Hiroshima in Japan from the Saudi city of Jeddah on a French government plane, the source told Reuters. (Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Rachel Armstrong; Editing by Hugh Lawson) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

By Naomi Rovnick and Ankur Banerjee LONDON, SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Global shares rose to a one-month high and the dollar trounced major currencies on Friday as markets reflected increased hopes for a deal over the U.S. debt ceiling that could avoid a calamitous default. Europe’s STOXX 600 traded up 0.4%, while e-mini futures for the S&P 500 rose 0.2%, following a 0.9% gain for the benchmark Wall Street index overnight. MSCI’s […]

(Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is on his way to the Arab League meeting in Saudi Arabia, a source familiar with the meeting told Reuters. Zelenskiy will then travel on to the G7 meeting in Hiroshima in Japan from the Saudi city of Jeddah on a French government plane, the source told Reuters. (Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Rachel Armstrong; Editing by Hugh Lawson) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

By Gloria Dickie LONDON (Reuters) – More than half of the world’s large lakes and reservoirs have shrunk since the early 1990s, chiefly because of climate change, intensifying concerns about water for agriculture, hydropower and human consumption, a study published on Thursday found. A team of international researchers reported that some of the world’s most important freshwater sources – from the Caspian Sea between Europe and Asia to South America’s […]

By Katya Golubkova and John Irish HIROSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will attend the Group of Seven (G7) Hiroshima summit this weekend, Ukrainian and Western officials said, putting fresh pressure on Russia against the backdrop of a city synonymous with the horrors of nuclear war. Zelenskiy will attend on Sunday, two officials involved in the G7 summit said, declining to be identified because of the sensitivity of […]

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) – Rachel Zihindula knew from the moment she started refereeing that she wanted to take charge at the very highest level. The 24-year-old hails from the Democratic Republic of Congo’s eastern city of Goma in a region that has been at war for almost 30 years. In January, she was elevated to the rank of international referee by world soccer’s governing body FIFA, which […]

By Andreas Rinke HIROSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) – The Group of Seven (G7) rich nations should work together to access technology and secure sources of critical minerals for a green transition, creating additional manufacturing capacity rather than competition, a top European diplomat said on Friday. The G7 is accelerating its push towards greener technologies after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupted decades-long energy supply chains. The group also wants to cut reliance […]