World

[Getty Images]An influential global body has forecast Russia's economy will grow faster than all of the world's advanced economies, including the US, this year.The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects Russia to grow 3.2% this year, significantly more than the UK, France and Germany.Oil exports have "held steady" and government spending has "remained high" contributing to growth, the IMF said.Overall, it said the world economy had been "remarkably resilient""Despite many gloomy predictions, the world avoided a recession, the banking system proved largely resilient, and major emerging market economies did not suffer sudden stops," the IMF said.The IMF is an international organisation with 190 member countries. They are used by businesses to help plan where to invest, and by central ban...

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has posed a threat to global security, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Tuesday.Scholz criticized Russia's actions as violations of the UN Charter's principle of national border inviolability.He urged Xi to leverage China's influence with Russia to end the war.German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Tuesday that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatens global security, in an apparent call for China to apply greater pressure on its neighbor and close strategic partner to resolve the conflict.Scholz also said the use of nuclear weapons in the two-year-old war should not even be threatened, according to a German government transcript of his brief remarks at the start of a meeting with Xi in the Chinese capital...

Donald Trump says judge is running roughshod over his lawyers and legal team on April 16, 2024. — ReutersRepublican presumptive nominee for the November elections Donald Trump arrived Manhattan courthouse for his hush money case proceedings Tuesday as he did not miss the opportunity to fire a fresh salvo toward the judge. It is the second day of the former president’s criminal case proceedings as the jury selection will also be carried out today. It will take one to two weeks to finalise the jurors. The 77-year-old businessman was indicted last month in March for the first time in a case that alleged him of paying hush money to an adult film star Stormy Daniels and falsifying business records in 2016.According to Daniels, they had consensual sexual interaction in 2006, after he was mar...

For people in eastern Ukraine, where nightly barrages of drones from Russia outpace the military’s overwhelmed air defenses, the response by Western allies to Iran’s aerial assault against Israel this weekend produced uncomfortable comparisons.The militaries of the United States, Britain, France and others stepped in to help Israel defend against the fusillade of more than 300 Iranian drones and missiles, nearly all of which were intercepted. A similar number of aerial weapons are fired at Ukraine on a weekly basis, its officials say, with many of the drones in those attacks designed by Iran and now produced by Russia.Since the start of this year, Russia has fired 1,000 missiles, 2,800 drones and 7,000 guided aerial bombs at Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s permanent representative to the ...

SYDNEY (AP) — Australia's prime minister says a French construction worker who confronted a man who stabbed six people to death in a Sydney shopping mall is welcome to stay in the country as long as he likes.Damien Guerot has been nicknamed “Bollard Man” on social media because of security camera footage showing him standing at the top of an escalator menacing Joel Cauchi with a plastic bollard as he approached. Cauchi fled down the escalator and people on Guerot’s floor were kept safe.Guerot’s temporary Australian work visa was due to expire in July until the prime minister intervened.“I say this to Damien Guerot, who is dealing with his visa applications, that you are welcome here, you are welcome to stay for as long as you like,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters Tuesday.“...

Australia church stabbing captured on livestream A suspect was apprehended after multiple people were injured during a stabbing at a church in Wakeley, a suburb of Sydney, Australia, on Monday night. (Credit: Christ The Good Shepherd Church) Australian police are now saying that the stabbing of a church bishop and priest during a livestreamed mass outside of Sydney is a "terrorist incident." A 16-year-old male suspect, who has not been publicly identified, remains in custody Tuesday following the attack Monday night at the Assyrian Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley. "We believe there are elements that are satisfied in terms of religious motivated extremism," New South Wales state Police Commissioner Karen Webb said Tuesday, according to Reuters. "After consideration of all the ...

A person is using their laptop in this representational image. — UnsplashDUBAI: As the weather in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) gets rough with heavy rains across cities the gulf nation, the residents of Dubai have been asked to stay at home and observe a remote working and studying day today.The development comes as emirate responds to challenging weather challenges in the metropolitan following directives issued by Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.The crown prince has ordered all government entities and private schools in Dubai to observe Tuesday as a remote working day, as the government aims to ensure the safety of its employees and citizens amidst potentially adverse weather conditions.As thunder...

The old stock exchange building in downtown Copenhagen — one of the city’s oldest structures, known for its elaborate spire of intertwined dragon tails — partly collapsed in a large fire early Tuesday.It was not immediately clear what caused the fire, but images and video from social media showed flames on the structure’s roof and dark clouds of smoke lingering over the city.“It’s absolutely dreadful to see Borsen in flames,” Jakob Engel-Schmidt, Denmark’s culture minister, said an interview early Tuesday, using the Danish name for the building. “The building represents over 400 years of Danish history. It’s one of the last structures in the world in Dutch Renaissance style, where trade has been conducted throughout the entire period.”The police in Copenhagen said on social media that the...

YOKOHAMA, Japan (AP) — Nissan expects to mass produce electric vehicles powered by advanced next-generation batteries by early 2029, the company said Tuesday during a media tour of an unfinished pilot plant.Japan's legacy automakers have fallen behind newer rivals like America's Tesla and China's BYD in the emerging all-electric auto sector.But Nissan, like other companies, sees a chance to catch up and perhaps leap ahead with a new kind of battery that promises to be more powerful, cheaper, safer and faster to charge than the lithium-ion batteries in use today.Solid-state batteries, which replace the corrosive liquids found in conventional batteries with solid metals, are widely seen as the next step for EVs, and leading automakers are racing to develop versions that can be mass produced...

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A political prisoner in Belarus has shed light on the country's brutal prison system by smuggling out her story written on pieces of toilet paper.Katsiaryna Novikava, 38, described being repeatedly beaten by security forces after she was detained in June 2023 wearing only a nightshirt. She became one of hundreds of political prisoners in the country of 9.5 million people ruled by authoritarian dictator Alexander Lukashenko.MAN ACCUSED OF INSULTING LUKASHENKO ONLINE DIES IN BELARUS JAIL"Everyone who was in the office beat me. They hit me on the head," Novikava wrote, describing how she was assaulted during interrogation in several detention centers. Her account was published in independent Belarusian media.Belarus was rocked by mass protests during Lukashenko’s con...