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Ya Libnan
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Ya Libnan
Zelensky urges Trump not to be silent after Russia launched war's largest air attack on Ukraine, killing at least 12 people
An explosion of a drone lights up the sky over the city during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine May 24, 2025. President Trump has so far refused to impose new sanctions on Russia despite his threats to do so .REUTERS/Gleb Garanich By Max Hunder . Summary KYIV- Russian forces launched a barrage of 367 drones and missiles at Ukrainian cities overnight, including the capital Kyiv, in the largest aerial attack of the war so far, killing at least 12 people and injuring dozens more, officials said. The dead included three children in the northern region of Zhytomyr, local officials there said. The Reuters Tariff Watch newsletter is your daily guide to the latest global trade and tariff news. Sign up here. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on the United States, which has taken a softer public line on Russia and its leader, Vladimir Putin, since President Donald Trump took office, to speak out. 'The silence of America, the silence of others in the world only encourages Putin,' he wrote on Telegram. 'Every such terrorist Russian strike is reason enough for new sanctions against Russia.' It was the largest attack of the war in terms of weapons fired, although other strikes have killed more people. Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said 12 people had been killed and 60 more wounded. Earlier death tolls given separately by regional authorities and rescuers had put the number of dead at 13. 'This was a combined, ruthless strike aimed at civilians. The enemy once again showed that its goal is fear and death,' he wrote on Telegram. The assault comes as Ukraine and Russia prepared to conduct the third and final day of a prisoner swap in which both sides will exchange a total of 1000 people each. CEASEFIRE EFFORTS Ukraine and its European allies have sought to push Moscow into signing a 30-day ceasefire as a first step to negotiating an end to the three-year war. Their efforts suffered a blow earlier this week when Trump declined to place further sanctions on Moscow for not agreeing to an immediate pause in fighting, as Kyiv had wanted. Ukraine's air force said Russia had launched 298 drones and 69 missiles in its overnight assault, although it said it was able to down 266 drones and 45 missiles. Damage extended to a string of regional centres, including Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, as well as Mykolaiv in the south and Ternopil in the west. In Kyiv, Tymur Tkachenko, head of the city's military administration, said 11 people were injured in drone strikes. No deaths were reported in the capital, although four were killed in the region around the city, according to officials. This was the second large aerial attack in two days. On Friday evening, Russia launched dozens of drones and ballistic missiles at Kyiv in waves that continued through the night. In northeastern Ukraine, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said early on Sunday that drones hit three city districts and injured three people. Blasts shattered windows in high-rise apartment blocks. Drone strikes killed a 77-year-old man and injured five people in the southern city of Mykolaiv, the regional governor said. He published a picture of a residential apartment block with a large hole from an explosion and rubble scattered over the ground. In the western region of Khmelnytskyi, many hundreds of kilometres away from the frontlines of fighting, four people were killed and five others wounded, according to the governor. 'Without pressure, nothing will change and Russia and its allies will only build up forces for such murders in Western countries,' the Ukrainian president's chief of staff Andriy Yermak wrote on Telegram. 'Moscow will fight as long as it has the ability to produce weapons.' Russia's Defence Ministry reported that its air defence units had intercepted or destroyed 95 Ukrainian drones over a four-hour period. The Mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, said 12 Ukrainian drones had been intercepted on their way to the capital. (Reuters)
Business Recorder
13-05-2025
- Business
- Business Recorder
Indian benchmarks set for muted start; pharma stocks in focus
India's benchmark indexes are likely to open little changed on Tuesday, after logging their best day in more than four years following a fragile ceasefire with Pakistan over the weekend. The Gift Nifty futures were trading at 24,916 as of 8:17 a.m. IST, indicating that the Nifty 50 will open around Monday's close of 24,924.7. The Reuters Tariff Watch newsletter is your daily guide to the latest global trade and tariff news. Sign up here. Investor sentiment is upbeat after the U.S. and China agreed to temporarily slash harsh reciprocal tariffs and cooperate to avoid rupturing the global economy. MSCI's Asia ex Japan index traded 0.3% higher on Monday, following a 2% jump in the previous session amid trade optimism. Indian shares set to open higher on India-Pakistan ceasefire Back home, the Nifty 50 and Sensex soared nearly 4% in a broad-based relief rally on Monday after India and Pakistan reached and held a ceasefire following days of cross-border clashes. The gains were driven by both foreign and domestic investors. Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought Indian shares worth 12.46 billion rupees ($146.9 million) on Monday, as per provisional data. With this, FPIs have bought Indian shares worth $1.7 billion so far in May on optimism over domestic growth prospects, a weaker dollar, and easing global trade tensions. Meanwhile, the spotlight is on pharmaceutical stocks after U.S. President Donald Trump signed a wide-reaching executive order on Monday, directing drugmakers to lower the prices of their medicines to align with what other countries pay. Trump's order will have limited near-term impact on Indian pharma companies, but it may have a bearing on their long-term capital allocation strategies, according to India Ratings & Research.
Ya Libnan
12-05-2025
- Business
- Ya Libnan
Global stocks rally after US, China pause tariff war
Photo: Dow leaps over 1100 points on Monday By Andrea Shalal , Emma Farge , Olivia Le Poidevin and Lisa Baertlein WASHINGTON – Global stock markets surged on Monday after the U.S. and China agreed to slash steep tariffs for at least 90 days, tapping the brakes on a trade war between the world's two biggest economies that had fed fears of a global recession. But the temporary pause did little to address the underlying schisms that led to the dispute, including the U.S. trade deficit with China and U.S. President Donald Trump 's demand for more action from Beijing to combat the U.S. fentanyl crisis. The Reuters Tariff Watch newsletter is your daily guide to the latest global trade and tariff news. Sign up here. While investors cheered the move, businesses were seeking more clarity. Under the temporary truce, the U.S. will cut extra tariffs it imposed on Chinese imports last month from 145% to 30% for the next three months, the two sides said, while Chinese duties on U.S. imports will fall to 10% from 125%. Financial markets cheered the reprieve in a conflict that had brought nearly $600 billion in two-way trade to a standstill, disrupting supply chains and triggering layoffs. Wall Street stocks finished sharply higher, with the S&P 500 closing at its highest level since March 3 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite recording its highest close since February 28. The dollar rose, while safe-haven gold prices fell as the news eased – but did not erase – concerns that Trump's trade war could crater the global economy. Trump and his allies hailed the agreement as proof his aggressive tariff strategy was paying dividends, after the U.S. struck preliminary pacts with Britain and now China. It was not yet clear whether the deep trade imbalances that have hollowed out U.S. manufacturing will be addressed. Even U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who hammered out Monday's agreement with Chinese counterparts in weekend talks in Geneva, has acknowledged it will take years to reset Washington's trade relationship with Beijing. China's state media said Beijing held firm to its principles while opening a path to more cooperation with the U.S., breaking from its tone of defiance a week earlier. 'Economic and trade cooperation between China and the U.S. has a deep foundation, great potential and broad space,' government-run broadcaster CCTV said in a commentary. Trump campaigned in the 2024 election on addressing unfair trade practices and resurrecting U.S. manufacturing capacity. He won votes from blue-collar workers in states like Michigan and Pennsylvania that have lost manufacturing jobs for decades. But Trump's tariff policy also drew fire from a range of groups. Small businesses and truckers were girding for major repercussions from the China tariffs, while American consumers worried about rising costs. Scott Kennedy, a China business and economics expert at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the administration needed to pull back or risk severe damage to the U.S. economy. 'This is 100% a retreat by the U.S., not a Chinese cave,' Kennedy said. 'The U.S. was the one that launched the trade war and escalated it. The Chinese retaliated and they've only withdrawn their retaliatory measures.' But Kelly Ann Shaw, an attorney with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld who worked as a key trade adviser during Trump's 2017-2021 term, said Trump was simply fulfilling his campaign promises. 'The president is doing what he said he would. This is absolutely about resolving disparities in the trading relationship,' she said. She acknowledged that 90 days was not much time to address major U.S. concerns over non-tariff barriers such as subsidies for capital and labor. 'They've got their work cut out for them.' ON-AND-OFF APPROACH Seeking to reduce the U.S. trade deficit, Trump targeted countries worldwide with an array of tariffs and especially aggressive levies on China, which he blames for exacerbating the U.S. fentanyl crisis. Markets shuddered in response, and last month Trump quickly paused most of his 'reciprocal' tariffs on dozens of countries, except China. Trump's on-and-off approach has rattled investors and weakened his approval ratings among U.S. voters worried tariffs will lift prices on everything from toys to cars. The remaining U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports are still stacked atop prior duties. Even before Trump took office in January, China was saddled with 25% U.S. tariffs he had imposed on many industrial goods during his first term, with lower rates on some consumer goods. The agreement leaves these duties unchanged, along with tariffs of 100% on electric vehicles and 50% on solar products imposed by former Democratic President Joe Biden. Retailers may take a wait-and-see approach to 30% tariffs that would drive up prices for shoppers, said Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, the nation's busiest and the No. 1 ocean entry point for imports from China. Monday's accord also does not include the 'de minimis' exemptions for low-value e-commerce shipments from China and Hong Kong, which the Trump administration terminated on May 2. However, the tariffs were cut by more than many analysts had anticipated. Last week, Trump floated a much higher rate of 80%. Shipping industry representatives said the temporary cuts may prompt many companies to restart loadings of goods while tariffs remain low, but uncertainty around any eventual deal may leave businesses wary of ramping up orders dramatically. Mike Abt, co-president of family-owned Abt Electronics in Chicago, said the company is working down inventories squirreled away before tariffs went live. 'Everyone wants consistency, and that's been the hard part of this whole thing,' he said. 'It's so fluid. It's like a game of Risk, you really don't know what the right answer is.' Within the administration, the truce marked a victory for Bessent, a former hedge fund executive who had advocated for the earlier 90-day pause in the global reciprocal tariffs to allow time for negotiation. 'The consensus from both delegations this weekend is neither side wants a decoupling,' Bessent said after the talks in Geneva. 'We want more balanced trade, and I think that both sides are committed to achieving that.' Bessent told U.S. media that the next meeting had not yet been set but that the sides were ready to continue negotiating. (Reuters)
Reuters
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Police in Azerbaijan detain another journalist as pressure on independent media increases
May 7 (Reuters) - Police in Azerbaijan on Wednesday detained a journalist, Ulviyya Ali, local media reported, amid an ongoing criminal case against six of her colleagues at the independent Meydan TV outlet. Azerbaijani media said Ali had been placed in pre-trial detention for one month and 29 days on suspicion of smuggling. She was reported to deny any wrongdoing. The Reuters Tariff Watch newsletter is your daily guide to the latest global trade and tariff news. Sign up here. Several other journalists have been charged with smuggling in recent months, an accusation they reject as politically-motivated and say is designed to silence critical voices. Oil-rich Azerbaijan has rejected Western criticism of the arrests, saying comments by Western diplomats and rights groups calling for the release of activists and journalists amount to interference in its judicial system. It says the arrests are not politically-motivated. Media rights group Reporters Without Borders says there are 24 journalists and media workers currently detained in Azerbaijan.
Reuters
07-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Greece, Bulgaria reach long-awaited water deal before summer
ATHENS/SOFIA, May 7 (Reuters) - After months of negotiations, Bulgaria and Greece have signed a five-year water deal, the Bulgarian foreign ministry confirmed on Wednesday, a decision that prompted relief among Greek farmers anxious about their crops. The deal replaces a 60-year agreement that expired last July, underscoring just how precarious water resources have become in the Mediterranean region due to climate change. The Reuters Tariff Watch newsletter is your daily guide to the latest global trade and tariff news. Sign up here. The impasse over a deal had alarmed farmers in the northern Greek region of Evros, who staged tractor blockades in January demanding a solution. It has proven controversial in Bulgaria, where opposition parties have accused the government of giving away a valuable resource for free. Under a joint declaration signed by the two neighbours' foreign ministers on May 2, Bulgaria will release water from the River Arda flowing from its mountains into 50,000 acres (20,000 hectares) of the Evros plain in northern Greece. The amount will be decided annually after assessing Bulgaria's own needs, the Bulgarian foreign ministry told Reuters. "The two sides stress the importance of water resources... as well as the need to protect these resources in view of the risks posed by climate change," the ministry said, without providing any further details. Greek farmers had hoped for a longer-term deal but welcomed the new agreement. "At the very last minute, there was a solution," said Dimitris Drakoudis, head of a local farmers' association. "We were worried because the irrigation season has started," he said, adding that farmers were still waiting for more details on the terms of the deal. The expired deal was part of World War Two reparations agreement signed in 1964 and had obliged Bulgaria to release 186 million cubic metres of water every year from May to September, from hydroelectric dams to Evros. Greece has no functioning reservoirs in the area to retain water and is required to upgrade or build necessary water storage facilities under the new agreement, Bulgaria said.
