BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The battle for Donbas will remind of World War Two with large operations maneuvers and thousands of tanks, planes and armored vehicles, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba warned on Thursday at NATO, as he called for help from…
Greek PM inaugurates 204 MW solar park, pledges fast permits for renewables
ATHENS (Reuters) – Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis inaugurated on Wednesday a 204-megawatt solar park and promised to speed up permits for renewable energy projects as the country seeks to wean off polluting and costly imported fossil fuels. G…
UK’s BT faces possible industrial action after union rejects pay offer
LONDON (Reuters) -BT, Britain’s biggest broadband and mobile operator, faces possible industrial action after the Communication Workers Union (CWU) rejected a consolidated pay rise of 1,500 pounds ($1,961) for its frontline workers. BT has about 58,000…
Switzerland has frozen 7.5 billion francs in assets under Russia sanctions
ZURICH (Reuters) – Switzerland has so far frozen some 7.5 billion Swiss francs ($8.03 billion) in funds and assets under sanctions against Russians to punish Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, government official Erwin Bollinger told a news conference on Th…
Lukashenko says there must be no Ukraine deal ‘behind Belarus’s back’
(Reuters) – Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said on Thursday that his country must be involved in negotiations to resolve the conflict in Ukraine and that he expected to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the next few days. “The…
Braving mined streets to reach Czech village, two Mariupol mums chart new life
By Michael Kahn KRAMOLIN, Czech Republic (Reuters) – Alisa Artiukh and Yuliia Boiko sheltered underground for two weeks in the decimated, besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol before braving the fighting to flee on foot when both food and hope for their …
Russia says Ukraine presented ‘unacceptable’ draft peace deal
(Reuters) -Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that Kyiv had presented Moscow with a draft peace deal that contained “unacceptable” elements, but that Russia would nonetheless continue talks and press to secure its own requirements….
Russia will not have surplus this year, revenues to be spent -TASS quotes PM
(Reuters) – Russia will not have a budget surplus this year as all revenues will be spent, TASS news agency quoted Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin as saying on Thursday. Before the recent western sanctions, Russia planned to run a budget surplus of 1….
European shares rise as defensives rally, hawkish Fed weighs
(Reuters) – Healthcare stocks helped European shares recover on Thursday from their worst session in a month, even as hawkish Federal Reserve minutes and Washington’s new sanctions against Russia kept investors cautious. The pan-European STOXX 600 inde…
U.S. dollar rises, but off near two-year peak amid hawkish Fed signals
By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. dollar climbed to nearly two-year highs on Thursday, as investors digested hawkish signals from the Federal Reserve, but wondered whether the currency’s value already reflected further tightenin…