BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The EU Commission said on Wednesday it was prepared to consider changes to a plan of reforms agreed with Italy, but any new proposals must be made as soon as possible for Rome to secure promised pandemic recovery funds. Rome is struggling to meet a package of policy pledges, including reforms to…
By Andrew Hayley BEIJING (Reuters) -Russia’s prime minister signed a set of agreements with China on Wednesday during a trip to Beijing, describing bilateral ties at an unprecedented high, despite criticism of their relationship in the West as the war in Ukraine drags on. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, the highest-ranking Russian official to visit Beijing…
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department on Monday said Russia’s Wagner Group is trying to obscure its efforts to acquire military equipment for use in Ukraine, adding that Washington has been informed the mercenary force is seeking to move those acquisitions through Mali to aid Russia in its war. Wagner is willing to use…
LONDON (Reuters) -The World Health Organization assembly passed a motion on Wednesday condemning Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, including attacks on healthcare facilities. The motion passed by 80 votes to 9, with 52 abstentions and 36 countries absent. The Western-led motion, put forward at the U.N. agency’s annual meeting, also called for an assessment of the…
By Lefteris Papadimas ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece’s president appointed a caretaker prime minister on Wednesday to form a government that will lead the country to a repeat election on June 25, after last weekend’s inconclusive vote. The conservative New Democracy party of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis stormed to victory polling 40.1% last Sunday, but fell…
By Filipp Lebedev, Lucy Papachristou and Mark Trevelyan LONDON (Reuters) – The director of a top Russian science institute, arrested on suspicion of treason along with two other hypersonic missile technology experts, stands accused of betraying secrets to China, two people familiar with the case told Reuters. Alexander Shiplyuk, head of Siberia’s Khristianovich Institute of…
By Gwladys Fouche and Victoria Klesty OSLO (Reuters) -The world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, sailed into Oslo on Wednesday, a first for such a U.S. ship, in a show of NATO force at a time of heightened tension between NATO and Russia over the war in Ukraine. The ship and its…
By Lewis Jackson SYDNEY (Reuters) -The Australian Treasury has referred a confidential document leak scandal involving professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to police, Secretary to the Treasury Steven Kennedy said on Wednesday. The government, a PwC Australia client, has accused the firm of using confidential information about new anti-tax avoidance measures to win more business,…
By Tom Balmforth, Anna Dabrowska LONDON/KYIV (Reuters) -A two-day incursion from Ukraine into Russia’s western borderlands could force the Kremlin to divert troops from front lines as Kyiv prepares a major counteroffensive, and deal Moscow a psychological blow, according to military analysts. Though Kyiv has denied any role, the biggest cross-border raid from Ukraine since…
By Lisa Baertlein LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The slumping U.S. transportation sector could be bouncing off a bottom as retailers start preparing for the back-to-school season and winter holidays, but political brinkmanship in Washington and interest rate hikes could threaten long-term consumer demand, economists and supply chain executives said. Retailers like Walmart and Target have…
