WORLD

The US expanded full blocking sanctions on Wednesday against Russia’s state lender Sberbank and one of the country’s largest private lenders, Alfa Bank. “Today, we’re dramatically escalating the financial shock by imposing full blocking sanctions on Russia’s largest financial institution, Sberbank, and its largest private bank, Alfa Bank,” a senior …

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has waded into the growing furore surrounding the fairness of trans athletes competing against women as he says that it is “sensible” that biologically born men shouldn’t be permitted to compete in female sporting categories.  Johnson’s comments come days after transgender cyclist Emily Bridges was …

The fitting in Ukraine have made the window for a possible Chinese attack on Taiwan ‘highly unpredictable,’ the commander of the US Navy’s Pacific Fleet, Admiral Samuel Paparo, has warned.  During a roundtable with journalists from Indo-Pacific countries in Washington on Monday, Paparo was asked if he thought that the conflict …

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Wednesday he is opposed to any EU sanctions on Russian energy, adding his country will accept Moscow’s directive that gas supplies be paid-for in rubles. Hungary will not yield to pressure and will not support restrictions of oil and gas supplies from Russia …

Declassified files released by the US National Security Archive reveal the extent of paranoid and aggressive American backroom bullying in negotiations over the Kyoto Protocol, a historic 1990s agreement that obliged almost every country in the world to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, in an attempt to thwart the onset of global …

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Wednesday that he has invited President Vladimir Putin to meet the leaders of France, Germany and Ukraine in Budapest, urging the Russian leader to declare an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine. Open hostilities between Moscow and Kiev broke out when Russia attacked its neighboring …

EU policy makers failed to agree Wednesday on a new package of sanctions against Moscow, including a ban on Russian coal imports, Reuters reports, citing its sources. The latest round of economic restrictions was proposed by the European Commission earlier this week. Persons familiar with the matter explained the fiasco …

If Western countries continue to expel Russian diplomats, Moscow won’t rule out the possibility of severing diplomatic ties with them, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday. He described the recent wave of expulsions as “closing the window” for continued diplomatic relations. “There is such a potential risk, since every …

Russia will remain a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and nobody can change that, US officials have admitted, following Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s request to exclude Moscow from the UN’s most powerful body. “[President Zelensky’s] frustration, which we share, that Russia is a permanent member of the …

The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, has said the bloc is sending weapons to Ukraine so that the conflict with Russia does not end in Kiev’s defeat. “We want it to end as soon as possible, but not in any way,” Borrell told the European Parliament on Wednesday. “Because if …