Category: Western Media

A federal appeals court on Wednesday directed a lawyer for Donald Trump to turn over to prosecutors documents in the investigation into the former president’s retention of classified…

Russia said on Wednesday that a division of its Bastion coastal defense missile systems had been deployed to Paramushir, one of the Kuril islands in the north Pacific, some of which Japan claims as its territory.

The move is part of a wider strengthening of Russian defenses in its vast far eastern regions, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said, partly in response to what he called U.S. efforts to “contain” Russia and China.

Shoigu was speaking to Russia’s top army brass a day after President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping cemented their “no limits” partnership at talks in the Kremlin with agreements on deeper energy and military cooperation.

“To contain Russia and China, the United States is significantly increasing its military presence in the Asia-Pacific region, strengthening its political and military links with its allies, continuing to create a new American security architecture in this region,” Shoigu said in a video of his address published by Russia’s defense ministry.

Shoigu said the Bastion system would bolster Russian security around the Kuril island chain.

As the Federal Reserve raises interest rates again, credit card debt is already at a record high, and more people are carrying debt month to month.

The Fed’s interest rate increases are meant to fight inflation, but they’ve also led to higher annual percentage rates (APRs) for people with credit card debt, which means they pay more in interest. The Fed announced Wednesday that it would increase rates another quarter of a point.

With inflation still high, people are leaning on their credit cards more for everyday purchases.

“It’s the economy, inflation, gas prices, and food costs,” said Lance DeJesus, 46, kitchen manager at the Golden Corral in York, Pennsylvania. “A year ago, you could go to the grocery store with a hundred bucks and come out with a bunch of bags. Now, I come out with just one bag.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau bowed to pressure from the opposition and agreed to allow his top aide to testify before a parliamentary committee probing alleged Chinese election interference, his office said on Tuesday.

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has repeatedly called for Trudeau’s chief of staff, Katie Telford, to speak in a parliamentary committee looking into the foreign election tampering.

The government had refused until the leader of the New Democrat Party, which supports Trudeau in key parliamentary votes, on Tuesday backed the Conservative call.

Demands for Telford’s testimony stem from allegations in unconfirmed media reports that Trudeau’s aides were made aware of specific Chinese interference attempts.

Trudeau says that China attempted to meddle in the 2019 and 2021 votes, but did not change the outcome. He has pointed to closed-door, bipartisan investigations that found attempted foreign interference was unsuccessful.

A new lawsuit accuses Mark Zuckerberg and other Meta Platforms Inc executives and directors of failing to do enough to stop sex trafficking and child sexual exploitation on Facebook and Instagram. The complaint made public late Monday by several pension and investment funds that own Meta stock said Meta’s leadership and board have failed to protect the company’s and shareholders’ interests by turning a blind eye to “systemic evidence” of criminal activity.

Given the board’s failure to explain how it tries to root out the problem, “the only logical inference is that the board has consciously decided to permit Meta’s platforms to promote and facilitate sex/human trafficking,” the complaint said. Meta rejected the basis for the lawsuit, which was filed in Delaware Chancery Court.

Meta, based in Menlo Park, California, has long faced accusations that its platforms are a haven for sexual misconduct.

The landing comes as the United States and Philippines strengthen military relations as China becomes more aggressive in the South China Sea.

The International Criminal Court said Friday that it has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine.

It was the first time the global court has issued a warrant against a leader of one of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.

The ICC said in a statement that Putin “is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of (children) and that of unlawful transfer of (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.”

It also issued a warrant for the arrest of Maria Lvova-Belova, the commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation.

The move was immediately dismissed by Moscow.

Regulators, policymakers and bankers are looking at the role that digital messaging and social media may have played in the collapse, and whether banks are entering an age when the psychological behavior behind a bank run — mass fear from depositors of losing their savings — may be amplified and go viral quicker than bank officers and regulators can successfully respond.

Samsung Electronics said Wednesday it expects to invest 300 trillion won ($230 billion) over the next 20 years as part of an ambitious South Korean national project to build the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturing base near the capital, Seoul.

The chip-making “mega cluster,” which will be established in Gyeonggi Province by 2042, will be anchored by five new semiconductor plants built by Samsung. It will aim to attract 150 other companies producing materials and components or designing high-tech chips, according to South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

The Japan Securities Dealers Association said Wednesday it has imposed a penalty of 300 million yen on SMBC Nikko Securities Inc for market manipulation, matching the highest fine previously issued by the organization.

According to the JSDA, SMBC Nikko illegally propped up the prices of 10 individual stock issues to stabilize them last year in “block offering” transactions.

The fine imposed on the brokerage by the JSDA is equal to that issued to Nomura Securities Inc. in connection with an insider trading scandal in 2012.

Portuguese tourist Fabio Figueirado wanted to admire beautiful buildings on a romantic getaway in Paris, but instead he and his girlfriend have found themselves navigating pavements piled high…

The United States, Australia and the United Kingdom are traveling “further down the wrong and dangerous path for their own geopolitical self-interest,” China’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday, responding…