Town Hall News

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel’s parliament passed the 2023-2024 national budget on Wednesday, gaining Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a political reprieve following months of protests against his religious-nationalist coalition’s judicial overhaul plans. With the two-year spending package clinched, Netanyahu sounded upbeat about the legislation that would limit some Supreme Court powers, which he put on hold in March to allow for so-far fruitless compromise talks with the opposition. “A new day dawns,” […]

By Emily Chow SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Oil prices pared their gains on Wednesday but were still solidly bid, after U.S. inventories and fuel supplies tightened and as a warning from the Saudi energy minister to speculators raised the prospect of further OPEC+ output cuts. Brent crude futures last rose 74 cents, or 1%, to $77.58 a barrel by 0645 GMT, while the U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) gained 84 cents, […]

LONDON (Reuters) – Portuguese police have been searching a reservoir this week about 50 km (31 miles) from where British three-year-old Madeleine McCann disappeared in 2007, authorities said. The move was the most recent development in the search for McCann whose disappearance 16 years ago triggered a global hunt and garnered huge media attention. WHEN DID MADELEINE MCCANN GO MISSING? On May 3, 2007 Madeleine McCann, aged three, vanished from […]

(This story contains language that readers may find offensive in paragraph 5) MOSCOW (Reuters) – Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner mercenary group, warned that Russia could face a revolution similar to those of 1917 and lose the war in Ukraine unless the elite got serious about fighting the war. Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine has triggered one of the deadliest European conflicts since World War Two and the […]

By James Oliphant WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, whose impassioned battles over pandemic lockdowns and divisive cultural issues have endeared him to conservatives, will announce on Wednesday he is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, placing him on a collision course with former President Donald Trump. DeSantis will make the announcement on Twitter during a discussion with Twitter CEO Elon Musk, DeSantis’ political team confirmed. At the same time, […]

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner mercenary group, warned that Russia could face a revolution similar to those of 1917 and lose the war in Ukraine unless the elite got serious about fighting the war. Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine has triggered one of the deadliest European conflicts since World War Two and the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile […]

By Lewis Jackson SYDNEY (Reuters) – Supporters of Julian Assange said on Wednesday the campaign to release the Wikileaks founder is on the “cusp of success” after a concerted diplomatic push by his country, Australia, which says he has been imprisoned for too long. Assange is being held in Britain and battling extradition to the United States where he is wanted on criminal charges over the release of confidential U.S. […]

BERLIN (Reuters) – A digital euro could be launched in three or four years but banknotes will be available as long as there is demand for them, Fabio Panetta, a member of the European Central Bank’s Executive Board, told Les Echos. To make the digital euro interoperable with other central bank digital currencies, the ECB was working closely with the central banks of the U.S., Britain, Switzerland, Canada, Japan and […]

By Kevin Buckland TOKYO (Reuters) – Asian stocks on Wednesday extended a global sell-off as U.S. debt ceiling negotiations dragged on without resolution, while the New Zealand dollar tumbled after the central bank caught markets off-guard by flagging that its tightening cycle is over. The U.S. dollar – paradoxically – remained elevated amid safe-haven demand, which was also a driver of Treasuries and pushed yields lower. Crude oil prices kept […]