Ukrainian president says men’s capture shows Moscow is trying to involve Beijing in the war ‘directly or indirectly’
Ukrainian forces have captured two Chinese nationals fighting with the Russian army in the eastern Donetsk region, according to Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The Ukrainian president said they were two of many more Chinese members of the Russian armed forces, and he accused the Kremlin of trying to involve Beijing in the conflict “directly or indirectly”.
Continue reading...Six neighbourhood associations in the Basque city of San Sebastián have asked Fifa to withdraw it as a venue for the 2030 men’s World Cup. The letter – which was criticised by the city’s mayor on Tuesday – comes three months after the city was named as one of 11 Spanish venues for the tournament taking place in Spain, Morocco and Portugal.
Signed by associations representing several areas around the San Sebastián’s historic centre as well as a platform of residents pushing for “tourism degrowth,” the letter said: “Hosting the Fifa World Cup will only worsen living conditions in our city,” adding that it would “further exacerbate the touristification” of the city.
Continue reading...Chancellor also says fiscal rules will not be changed, saying ‘we saw what happened when the previous government lost control of the public finances’
Half of Britons (51%) think the government should impose retaliatory tariffs on imports from the US, according to polling by More in Common, a campaign group. Last week, just before the Trump tariffs were announced, YouGov published figures suggesting 71% of Britons would favour retaliatory tariffs against the US.
Yesterday YouGov also released polling suggesting that only around a third of voters think Keir Starmer and the government played a significant role in ensuring the US tariffs imposed on the UK are relatively low.
Continue reading...Peter Dutton says policy would be ‘gamechanger’ despite experts questioning whether it would work
The Coalition’s plan to create a domestic gas reservation for the east coast would drive down household gas bills by 7% and industrial gas bills by 15%, newly-released estimates.
The opposition’s long-awaited modelling by Frontier Economics, released on Tuesday evening, estimated the changes would bring down new domestic gas supplies to $9 or $10 a gigajoule, and came after experts shed doubt on whether the policy could drive down prices through a government market intervention.
Continue reading...William Mitchell artwork saved but Blackheath community centre in which it was housed will be torn down
A rare piece of postwar art that was under threat of being demolished along with the south London building it was housed in has been saved.
The work, a mural by William Mitchell, was created for a community centre in Blackheath that is to be torn down to make way for social housing. The mural will now be preserved by Heritage of London Trust (Holt).
Continue reading...The move has sent shock waves through a region of US strategic importance that had respected Trump as tough on Beijing
Vietnam had tried to appease Donald Trump: tariffs on US goods were reduced; regulations were passed to allow Elon Musk’s SpaceX to launch its Starlink in the country. The prime minister, Pham Minh Chinh, even joked in January that he would happily “play golf all day long” at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida if it could “bring benefits to my country and my people”.
The strategies do not appear to have worked. Trump has inflicted an extraordinary 46% tariff on Vietnam that threatens to devastate its economic growth plans and undermine relations between the two countries. The tariff has sent shock waves through Vietnam, a manufacturing powerhouse where Trump has always been fairly popular, and across south-east Asia.
Continue reading...Bhim Kohli, who was walking his dog, was racially abused, kicked and punched in ‘gratuitous’ attack
Two teenagers have been found guilty at Leicester crown court of the manslaughter of Bhim Kohli after the 80-year-old was attacked in a park near Leicester in September.
A 15-year-old boy, who kicked, punched and racially abused the 80-year-old man while he was walking his dog in a park, has been found guilty of manslaughter.
Continue reading...US marshals sent to deliver letter warning Liz Oyer about testifying to Congress over actor’s gun case, lawyer says
The Trump administration-led justice department planned to send armed US marshals to deliver a letter warning a career pardon attorney about testifying to Congress after she says she was fired over a case involving the actor Mel Gibson, her lawyer said in a letter seen by Reuters on Monday.
“This highly unusual step of directing armed law enforcement officers to the home of a former Department of Justice employee who has engaged in no misconduct, let alone criminal conduct, simply to deliver a letter, is both unprecedented and completely inappropriate,” Michael Bromwich, a lawyer representing the fired pardon attorney Liz Oyer, wrote to the justice department.
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