High-stakes energy diplomacy in Beijing this week signals China's willingness to challenge US President Donald Trump's efforts to isolate Russia and assert US energy dominance. Chinese President Xi Jinping, sitting alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin, used this week's military parade commemorating the 80th anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War II to demonstrate Beijing's military and diplomatic clout amid escalating trade tensions with Washington. China backed up the parade with action on Tuesday, when Russian gas giant Gazprom announced that both sides had signed a legally...
Activity at US service providers expanded in August at the fastest pace in six months on the sharpest acceleration in orders in nearly a year. The Institute for Supply Management's index of services rose 1.9 points last month to 52, the group said Thursday. Readings above 50 indicate expansion, and the figure topped all but one estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists. The new orders index jumped 5.7 points, the most since September, to 56. The business activity index, which parallels the ISM's factory output gauge, climbed to a five-month high of 55. The solid advance in...
U.S. President Donald Trump told European leaders on Thursday that Europe must stop buying Russian oil that he said is helping Moscow fund its war against Ukraine, a White House official said, striking a combative tone amid slow diplomatic progress to end the fighting. Trump joined a call of the "Coalition of the Willing" countries, led by French President Emmanuel Macron, who were meeting in Paris on security guarantees for Kyiv in the event of a peace deal with Russia. "President Macron and European leaders called President Trump into their ‘Coalition of the Willing' meeting. President...
The U.S. economy added fewer jobs than anticipated in August, possibly bolstering the case for the Federal Reserve to slash interest rates at its next policy meeting later this month. Data from the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that nonfarm payrolls came in at 22,000 last month, down from an upwardly-revised level of 79,000 in July. Economists had estimated that the figure would stand at 75,000. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate edged higher to 4.3%, up from 4.2% in the prior month and in line with forecasts. Source : Investing.com
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday thousands of foreign troops could be deployed to his country under post-war security guarantees, but Russian leader Vladimir Putin said Moscow would regard them as legitimate targets to attack. Their comments underlined the gulf between Kyiv and Moscow as Western pessimism mounts over prospects for ending Russia's war in Ukraine quickly, with U.S. President Donald Trump expressing growing frustration with Moscow by saying Russia appeared "lost" to "deepest, darkest China." French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that 26...