Town Hall News

By Steve Scherer and David Ljunggren OTTAWA (Reuters) -The Bank of Canada on Wednesday held its key overnight interest rate at 5%, noting that the economy had entered a period of weaker growth, but said it could raise borrowing costs again should inflationary pressures persist. The central bank hiked rates by a quarter point in both June and July in a bid to tame stubbornly high inflation, which has remained […]

KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine’s parliament approved the appointment of former lawmaker Rustem Umerov as defence minister on Wednesday, in the biggest shake-up of the defence establishment since Russia’s invasion 18 months ago. Umerov, 41, replaces Oleksii Reznikov, who helped secure billions of dollars of Western military aid as defence minister but was dogged by media allegations of corruption at the ministry and sacked by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday. Reznikov did […]

By Krishn Kaushik NEW DELHI (Reuters) -Invites sent by Indian President Droupadi Murmu calling herself “President of Bharat” for a dinner on the sidelines of the G20 summit have stirred speculation that the government may be about to change the country’s name. WHAT IS THE CONTROVERSY ABOUT INDIA’S NAME? By convention, invitations issued by Indian constitutional bodies have always mentioned the name India when the text is in English, and […]

By Gilles Guillaume PARIS (Reuters) – Verkor should complete the first tranche of fundraising for its future battery gigafactory in Dunkirk, France, in the coming weeks, co-founder and chief customer officer Philippe Chain told Reuters. This first tranche will be a capital injection of around 800 million euros ($860 million), Chain added at the Munich car show, followed by a debt tranche of around 1.1 billion euros, as well as […]

LONDON (Reuters) – The Rolling Stones announced “Hackney Diamonds”, their first album of original music for 18 years, at the Hackney Empire theatre in east London on Wednesday. “We’re here to present our new single, which is called ‘Angry’, and the video of it, and ‘Angry’ is the first single from our new album, which is called ‘Hackney Diamonds’, which is why we are in Hackney, and which comes out […]

By Tommy Wilkes LONDON (Reuters) – European shareholders are increasingly contesting corporate executive pay reports, data showed on Wednesday, as investors unhappy with companies’ approach to environmental and social issues vote against director remuneration. The percentage of remuneration reports disputed by investors across seven countries reached 42.9% during the 2023 annual general meeting season, the highest in at least five years, according to an annual review by shareholder engagement firm […]

By Paul Carsten LONDON (Reuters) -Oil prices held steady on Wednesday after rising over 1% in the previous session, on a stronger dollar and as investors remained firm after jitters arising from supply cuts from Saudi Arabia and Russia. Brent crude futures were up by 10 cents to $90.14 a barrel at 1346 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) futures traded at $86.92 a barrel, up 23 cents. Against […]

By Olena Harmash and Pavel Polityuk KYIV (Reuters) -At least 16 people were killed and many more were wounded in a Russian attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka on Wednesday as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said. Footage circulated online by presidential officials showed people falling to the ground or running for cover after a huge explosion in front of them, seconds after […]

By Nick Carey, Paul Lienert and Giulio Piovaccari LONDON/DETROIT/MILAN, England (Reuters) – A global shortage of technicians and independent repair shops qualified to fix electric vehicles (EV) threatens to increase repair and warranty costs for drivers, potentially undermining upcoming deadlines to cut vehicle carbon emissions. From Milan to Melbourne to Malibu, technician training organizations, warranty providers and repairers say that independent repair shops will be vital for making EVs affordable […]