Town Hall News

By Lewis Jackson and Kirsty Needham SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Wednesday a Quad summit would not go ahead in Sydney next week without U.S. President Joe Biden, who postponed his trip due to debt ceiling negotiations in Washington. Albanese said the leaders of Australia, the United States, India and Japan would instead meet at the G7 in Japan this weekend, after Biden canceled a trip […]

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Former British prime minister Liz Truss will say in Taiwan on Wednesday that the West must avoid appeasing China and show unwavering support for the self-governed island, in a speech that risks further damaging Britain’s relations with Beijing. Truss is the most well-known British politician to visit Taiwan since former prime minister Margaret Thatcher in the 1990s, and her trip comes at a time when relations between […]

(Reuters) – The former chief executive of the First Republic Bank Michael Roffler blamed contagion spread from the failures of regional banks for the bank’s collapse and said regulators did not express concerns regarding the bank’s strategy, liquidity, or management performance. A total of over $100 billion in deposits were withdrawn from the bank over the course of weeks in response to industry-wide panic about the soundness of regional banks, […]

By Lucy Craymer WELLINGTON (Reuters) -New Zealand police said they would begin on Wednesday a thorough investigation of a burned-out hostel in the capital, Wellington, where at least six people died and up to 11 were unaccounted for, and confirmed they were treating the fire as suspicious. A blaze broke out on the top floor of the Loafers Lodge in the suburb of Newtown in the early hours of Tuesday, […]

By Lucy Craymer WELLINGTON (Reuters) -New Zealand police said they would begin on Wednesday a thorough investigation of a burned-out hostel in the capital, Wellington, where at least six people died and up to 11 were unaccounted for, and confirmed they were treating the fire as suspicious. A blaze broke out on the top floor of the Loafers Lodge in the suburb of Newtown in the early hours of Tuesday, […]

By Asif Shahzad ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -Bushra Khan, the wife of Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan, is facing corruption charges in the same case that led to his arrest on May 9. On Monday, he accompanied her to a court that granted her protective bail. She is known for her spirituality and devotion to Sufism, a mystical form of Islam. Khan, 70, has often called Bushra his spiritual leader. Born […]

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – None of the Airbus A320neo planes in the Singapore Airlines group with Pratt & Whitney engines are currently grounded over a lack of spares, Leslie Thng, CEO of Scoot, the airline’s low-cost subsidiary, said on Wednesday. The engines have been under scrutiny since Go Airlines (India) Ltd filed for bankruptcy protection this month, blaming “faulty” Pratt engines for the grounding of about half its 54 Airbus A320neos. […]

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Former British prime minister Liz Truss will say in Taiwan on Wednesday that the West must avoid appeasing China and show unwavering support for the self-governed island, in a speech that risks further damaging Britain’s relations with Beijing. Truss is the most well-known British politician to visit Taiwan since former prime minister Margaret Thatcher in the 1990s, and her trip comes at a time when relations between […]

By Ankur Banerjee SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Asian shares were subdued on Wednesday and the dollar hovered around a five-week peak as investors remained risk averse, with the U.S. debt ceiling talks and a mixed set of economic data weighing on sentiment. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 0.20% lower, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index was down 0.56%. The Shanghai Composite Index and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index […]