Author: Press Room

A senior Ukrainian official told AFP they were captured “a few days ago”, adding there may be more of them. They said the prisoners were likely Chinese citizens who were enticed into signing a contract with the Russian army, rather than being sent by Beijing. The Kremlin declined to comment on the allegations. “I have no way of commenting on this issue,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, including journalists from AFP, on Wednesday. Zelensky had said there was evidence that “many more Chinese citizens” were fighting with Russian forces, a claim Lin said was “absolutely groundless”. “The Chinese side’s…

The Chinese government on Wednesday issued a lengthy denunciation of American trade policies, accusing the United States of years of protectionism and of violating the trade agreement the two sides had negotiated late in President Trump’s first term.The document was issued by Beijing’s cabinet information office several hours after Mr. Trump raised to 104 percent the extra tariffs on Chinese goods that he has imposed in his second term.The missive assailed the United States for preparing to impose additional 90 percent tariffs on May 2 on low-value parcels from China, which enter the United States with no customs inspection and…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Global Economy myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.The European Central Bank faces an economic environment in which “some of the worst-case scenarios that we had identified are materialising”, according to José Luis Escrivá, governor of the Bank of Spain and a member of the ECB’s governing council.Speaking to the Financial Times ahead of the bank’s rate decision next week, Escrivá warned that tariffs imposed by Donald Trump were triggering a “very significant negative shock on economic activity”.He suggested US policies could bring into question the dollar’s status as a…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Hedge funds myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.The Bank of England has warned markets could endure “a further sharp correction” even after the steep sell-off triggered by Donald Trump’s announcement of sweeping tariffs last week.Officials at the central bank on Wednesday said “the probability of adverse events” had risen and the UK’s open economy was particularly exposed to the financial market turmoil stemming from Trump’s trade war.“The global risk environment has deteriorated, and uncertainty has intensified . . . the probability of adverse events, and the potential severity of their impact, has…

Rescuers raced to find survivors more than 24 hours after the roof of a nightclub collapsed in the Dominican Republic during a concert, killing nearly 100 people. Renowned Dominican merengue singer Rubby Perez, who was on stage at the popular Jet Set nightclub when the roof collapsed shortly after midnight on Tuesday, was among those killed, according to his manager, Enrique Paulino. About 370 rescue personnel combed mounds of fallen bricks, steel bars and tin sheets for survivors. Dozens of ambulances ferried the injured to hospital, as several people gathered outside the venue desperately seeking news of their loved ones.…

Representative Eric Burlison, a two-term congressman from Missouri’s Ozarks, is unequivocal about his support for President Trump.“I love the president,” he said this week as he walked through the Capitol.But Mr. Burlison is also one of about a dozen hard-line conservative Republicans who have said they cannot back their party’s budget blueprint to unlock Mr. Trump’s spending and tax cuts, even as the president is imploring them to support it in a vote that could come as early as Wednesday.“I can’t live with myself if I go back home and I added more debt and deficits without any kind of…

The arrest of an American academic in Thailand on charges of criticizing the monarchy has alarmed U.S. officials, the State Department said on Tuesday. The case represents a rare detention of a foreign citizen under Thailand’s strict lèse-majesté laws.The academic, Paul Chambers, a lecturer in civil-military relations in Southeast Asia at Naresuan University in northern Thailand, was arrested on lèse-majesté charges and charges under the Computer Crimes Act, according to Tammy Bruce, a spokeswoman for the State Department. She said that the department was communicating with Thai authorities over his detention.The lèse-majesté laws in Thailand are among the strictest in…

Descrease article font size Increase article font size A licensed practical nurse is calling for others in her line of work to be recognized as nurses in New Brunswick. Ashley Moore started a petition after other LPNs received letters from the Nurses Association of New Brunswick asking them to stop describing themselves as nurses on social media.“That’s what really kick-started my push for this, that’s what started my public appeal,” she said.Moore works as an instructor for future LPNs and says one of the main difference between LPNs and registered nurses (RNs) is that RNs have more training to deal…

Australia is well placed to deal with global volatility emanating from the new US tariff regime, according to Treasurer Jim Chalmers.

A pedestrian passes the seal of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency displayed outside the organization’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., on March 20, 2019.Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesThe Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Tuesday said a February hack of its email systems qualified as a “major incident” and exposed “highly sensitive information.”The breach, first disclosed and resolved in February, involved information related to the “financial condition of federally regulated financial institutions used in its examinations and supervisory oversight processes.”The OCC, an agency that regulates and supervises national banks, said it learned of the incident…