Parliament approved Ukraine's first major wartime tax increases on Thursday to shore up its finances as war with Russia drags on with no end in sight. Yaroslav Zhelezniak, a lawmaker from the Holos party, said 247 of 450 deputies in the Verhovna Rada had approved the increase. Ukraine spends the bulk of its revenue on funding its army, and the current level of taxation has been insufficient to cover rising defence spending, which has boomed since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, the finance ministry said.
An assertion by the head of the UK's MI5 security service that Russia's GRU military intelligence agency is bent on causing chaos across Britain and Europe is baseless and deserves to be ignored, the Kremlin said on Thursday. MI5 chief Ken McCallum said in a speech on Tuesday that the GRU was "on a sustained mission to generate mayhem on British and European streets: we've seen arson, sabotage and more." Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russia would not accept such allegations and they were not worthy of attention.
A Hong Kong court rejected jailed publisher Jimmy Lai ’s request to have a jury trial for his libel case against a pro-Beijing newspaper Thursday, the latest setback for the activist who suffered multiple blows in other legal battles. Lai, the founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper, is one of the city's leading activists who was prosecuted under a sweeping national security law during Beijing's crackdown on dissent.
Igor Shyshko's eyes shut as the electric razor hummed through his greying hair, a sound that until recently was for him synonymous with punitive beatings delivered by Russian prison guards.Prison guards taunted the men with Kremlin propaganda, vows to annex Poland or threats that France would one day become a Russian colony.
EU countries on Thursday discussed "innovative" ways to increase deportations of irregular migrants and rejected asylum seekers, including controversial plans to set up dedicated return centres outside the bloc.In May, 15 of them urged the European Commission to "think outside the box", calling for the creation of centres outside the EU, where rejected asylum seekers could be sent pending deportation -- the plan to be discussed on Thursday.
A college student and a former college student accused some of America's wealthiest schools of violating antitrust law in the financial aid process.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza killed at least 21 people on Thursday, with the toll likely to rise, Palestinian medical officials said. Israel has continued to strike at what it says are militant targets across the Palestinian enclave even as attention has shifted to its war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and rising tensions with Iran. It launched a large-scale air and ground operation against Hamas in northern Gaza earlier this week.
Recent voter registration trends could influence the race between Trump and Harris in a crucial state.
The pressure to achieve is leaving some teens burned out, according to a new survey. While parents are part of the problem, they can also be part of the solution.
If you are one of the millions of Americans with heart disease, you have a higher risk for future dementia, according to the American Heart Association.
Sean “Diddy” Combs is expected to appear in court on Thursday. He’s been spending his time in jail working on his defense, according to a source.
The vice president can prevail in a tight race if she takes these tough steps to prove to skeptics that she’s committed to bipartisan government.
The owner of 7-Eleven announced a major restructuring on Thursday as it seeks to boost its share price and fend off what would be the biggest foreign takeover of a Japanese firm.An improved share price would also make a takeover attempt by ACT more expensive for the Canadian firm, while also easing pressure from shareholders pressing management to restructure.
MG Motor, BYD and other Chinese electric car manufacturers say they will maintain their low sticker prices in Europe even after being hit with hefty tariffs this month.MG, the best-selling Chinese electric car brand in Europe, says it will guarantee its prices until the end of 2024, having stockpiled cars before the duties took effect.
President Volodymyr Zelensky met UK premier Keir Starmer in London Thursday, as the Ukrainian leader embarked on a whistle-stop tour of European capitals aimed at securing military aid before next month's crunch US election.The Ukrainian leader, dressed in his trademark military fatigues, is seeking to secure as much financial and military backing as possible during the tour, with US support in doubt if Donald Trump wins November's vote.
Cash-strapped Sri Lanka's economy was recovering faster than expected, the World Bank said Thursday, doubling the island's growth forecast to 4.4 percent for 2024.The island's 4.4 percent growth forecast for 2024 was, however, lower than the South Asia region's 6.4 percent, revised data of the World Bank showed.
Vote counting was under way in Mozambique on Thursday after a peaceful national election that is widely expected to see the ruling Frelimo party extend its 49 years in power. Votes are counted first at each polling station and district results expected by Saturday could give an early indication of who is leading. Official results normally take around two weeks to be announced by the electoral commission.
The ASEAN bloc remains a "stabilising force" in Southeast Asia despite making only incremental progress on key issues, including Myanmar's civil war and the drafting of a code of conduct for the South China Sea, its secretary-general said. Leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations are meeting in Laos this week with heads of government and top diplomats from partners including the United States, China, Japan and Russia. The bloc, home to over 685 million people and representing around 8% of global exports, has been unable to push resolutions on difficult regional issues, which analysts say risks undermining ASEAN's central role in its backyard.
Chinese markets got back into winning ways Thursday after China's central bank unveiled a facility to boost liquidity for firms to buy stocks, while most other markets tracked another record day on Wall Street.The gains led a rally across Asia, which came after the Dow and S&P 500 chalked up fresh records on Wall Street thanks to a burst from tech giants including Amazon and Apple.
Fay Manners and Michelle Dvorak were perched high on the snowy face of a Himalayan mountain when disaster struck their quest to become the first to summit its peak.