Town Hall News

By Melanie Burton MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Australian mining moguls who have gatecrashed the country’s recent international lithium deals have pushed bankers into trying fresh measures to fend off interlopers unwilling to pay the full price for their target. Australia’s vast lithium deposits needed for batteries for electric vehicles and the energy transition are drawing interest from global chemicals makers but local mining moguls Gina Rinehart, the country’s richest person, and […]

TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan’s two main opposition parties agreed on Wednesday to make a decision on a joint presidential ticket for January’s elections based on opinion polls, the parties said, as the ruling party decried interference from Beijing. The issue of China, which views Taiwan as its territory, looms over the Jan. 13 parliamentary and presidential elections. China has stepped up military and political pressure to press the island to accept […]

(Reuters) – BofA Global Research no longer expects the U.S. Federal Reserve to deliver another interest rate hike in December, following a softer-than-expected inflation reading for October. The brokerage had previously forecasted a final 25 basis points hike. “We now think that the hiking cycle is over,” BofA economists led by Stephen Juneau said in a note dated Tuesday. (Reporting by Priyadarshini Basu; Editing by Varun H K) Brought to […]

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan’s two main opposition parties agreed on Wednesday to make a decision on a joint presidential ticket for January’s elections based on opinion polls, the parties said, as the ruling party decried interference from Beijing. The issue of China, which views Taiwan as its territory, looms over the Jan. 13 parliamentary and presidential elections. It has stepped up military and political pressure to press the island to […]

By Renju Jose and Byron Kaye SYDNEY (Reuters) -State-sponsored cyber groups and hackers have increased assaults on Australia’s critical infrastructure, businesses and homes, a government report said, adding that its new defence agreement with Britain and the U.S. had likely made it more of a target. Reports of cybercrime surged 23% to more than 94,000 in the financial year to June, the Australian Cyber Security Centre said in its annual […]

By Renju Jose and Byron Kaye SYDNEY (Reuters) -State-sponsored cyber groups and hackers have increased assaults on Australia’s critical infrastructure, businesses and homes, a government report said, adding that its new defence agreement with Britain and the U.S. had likely made it more of a target. Reports of cybercrime surged 23% to more than 94,000 in the financial year to June, the Australian Cyber Security Centre said in its annual […]

(Reuters) -Defence ministers in ASEAN called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and a durable solution to the crisis in Myanmar during the opening of a regional meeting in Jakarta on Wednesday. Defence ministers from the Asian bloc are attending the 2-day meeting alongside key players in the Indo-Pacific as major powers jostle for regional influence, and as conflicts deepen from Myanmar to the Middle East. Opening the annual get-together, […]

By Sudarshan Varadhan (Reuters) -Oil prices rose on Wednesday as China’s factory output and retail sales beat expectations, a day after the International Energy Agency (IEA) raised its oil demand growth forecast for this year. Brent futures rose 20 cents, or 0.2%, to $82.67 a barrel by 0427 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 15 cents, also 0.2%, to $78.28. China’s October economic activity perked up as […]

By Trevor Hunnicutt and Nandita Bose SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday attacked former President Donald Trump for using the word “vermin” to refer to his political enemies, saying it echoed the language of Nazi Germany. At a recent rally in New Hampshire, Trump repeated his false claim that fraud cost him the 2020 presidential election and told the crowd he would “root out the communists, […]