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Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky lashed out at the Kremlin after Russian missiles killed eight civilians in the port city of Odesa, as America’s top diplomat prepared to visit Ukraine for the first time since Moscow’s full-scale invasion began eight weeks ago. In heated remarks, Zelensky called the Russians “bloody bastards”, “Nazis” and “Rashists” — a

The EU will force Big Tech companies to police content online more aggressively after approving a major piece of legislation that sets the rules for the first time on how companies should keep users safe on the internet. In the early hours of Saturday morning, after nearly 16 hours of negotiations, legislators in Brussels endorsed

Sterling dropped to its weakest level since late 2020 after a sharp drop in British retail sales underlined the depths of the cost of living crisis fuelled by surging inflation. The volume of retail sales in Great Britain fell 1.4 per cent, the Office for National Statistics said, worse than the 0.3 per cent drop

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday ordered Russian forces to “block off” the last remaining Ukrainian fighters at the Mariupol steelworks as he claimed Moscow had conquered the port city. Putin hailed Mariupol’s “liberation” after a two-month battle — a victory that would mark a major success in his war — but Ukraine has depicted the steelworks

US stock futures dropped and Treasuries extended their losses, following disappointing earnings from Netflix and further signs that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates aggressively to curb inflation. Contracts tracking Wall Street’s technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 index were down 1 per cent during the early European morning after Netflix said its decade-long run of subscriber

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had begun a long-awaited major new offensive in the country’s eastern Donbas border region after its forces intensified attacks along the frontline. Zelensky said in a late-night TV address on Monday that Russia had concentrated a “significant part” of its forces in the region and vowed that Ukraine would

China’s economy grew faster than expected in the first quarter but official data revealed a recent contraction in consumer activity as lockdown measures to counter the spread of Covid-19 weighed on the country’s outlook. China’s gross domestic product rose 4.8 per cent compared with the same period a year earlier, after expanding by 4 per

This year’s hawkish change in tack from central banks is close to ending the era of negative-yielding debt, shrinking the global tally of bonds with sub-zero yields by $11tn. Bond prices have tumbled this year as central banks move to end large-scale asset purchases and raise interest rates in their battle with soaring inflation, pushing

Twitter has launched a poison pill takeover defence to fend off a $43bn hostile bid from billionaire Tesla chief executive Elon Musk. In the first sign that the social media company plans to fight Musk’s bid, Twitter said on Friday that its board of directors had unanimously adopted a year-long shareholder rights plan to “enable

Russia’s defence ministry has said the Moskva naval missile cruiser, its flagship vessel in the Black Sea, has sunk, dealing a significant blow to Moscow’s offensive in southern Ukraine. Ukrainian officials said on Thursday that the Russian vessel had been hit by one of their anti-ship missiles, causing an explosion on board. The Pentagon assessed

The government of Rwanda on Thursday confirmed that it had signed a “bold new partnership” with the UK under which some people seeking refugee protection in Britain will be transferred to the central African country while awaiting processing. The announcement comes ahead of a speech in which Prime Minister Boris Johnson will pledge to tackle

UK inflation rose to 7 per cent, hitting a fresh 30-year high after fuel prices surged and raising pressure on the Bank of England to increase interest rates again. Consumer prices increased at an annual rate of 7 per cent last month, up from 6.2 per cent in February and well above the 0.7 per

Ukraine’s finance minister has made an appeal for immediate financial support of tens of billions of dollars to plug a gaping fiscal deficit caused by the Russian invasion. Government spending exceeded revenues by about $2.7bn in March and Ukraine expects the gap to expand to $5bn-$7bn a month in April and May because of the

Emmanuel Macron and his far-right rival Marine Le Pen will face each other in the second and final stage of the French presidential election on April 24 after beating the other candidates in the first round of voting on Sunday, according to early estimates. Macron won 28.6 per cent and Le Pen 24.4 per cent

French voters began casting their ballots on Sunday in the first round of a presidential election in which far-right leader Marine Le Pen is mounting a strong challenge to the incumbent Emmanuel Macron. A victory for Le Pen, who is sceptical about the EU and Nato and has in the past boasted of her ties

Russian missiles on Friday hit a railway station in Kramatorsk, killing dozens in the town in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region as Moscow intensified its offensive in the east of the country. “Thousands of people were at the station during the missile strike, as residents of Donetsk province are being evacuated to safer regions of Ukraine,”

Nato member states have agreed to supply new types of advanced weaponry to Ukraine, alliance representatives have said, as Kyiv prepares for a fresh offensive by Russia in the country’s east. The pledge came after a plea from Ukraine’s foreign minister for western countries to move faster with fresh supplies or instead see “many people

Meta has drawn up plans to introduce virtual coins, tokens and lending services to its apps, as Facebook’s parent company pursues its finance ambitions despite the collapse of a project to launch a cryptocurrency. The company, led by chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, is seeking alternative revenue streams and new features that can attract and retain

Volodymyr Zelensky has intensified his call for the international security system to be overhauled as new evidence emerged of alleged crimes by Russian forces in areas that were recently recaptured by Ukrainian troops. The Ukrainian president intensified his criticism of the global community in a late-night video address after lambasting the UN for failing to

The US believes Russia is planning to invade Ukraine “as soon as early 2022” with an estimated 175,000 troops — in a sign of the escalating alarm in Washington about Moscow’s intentions towards its neighbour. A Biden administration official said on Friday night that Moscow’s plans “call for a military offensive against Ukraine as soon