Author: Steven Sahiounie

The security forces added that Moskvin was concussed as a result of the incident An attempt on the life of a police chief was made in Mariupol, his car was blown up, a source in the security forces of the Donetsk People’s Republic told TASS on Monday. “The car of police chief Moskvin was blown up in the morning. He is alive, everything is fine,” the source said, adding that the car exploded a few meters away from him. The security forces added that Moskvin was concussed as a result of the incident. “The police chief was slightly concussed after…

Israeli media say three police officers were injured during clashes with protesters on “Ayalon” highway in “Tel Aviv”. Israeli media reported on Sunday that the occupation police began to forcefully clear out protesters using water cannons after they blocked the “Ayalon” highway in “Tel Aviv” for nearly five hours. Dozens of police officers mounted on horses, and backed by heavy vehicles, broke through the crowd of demonstrators, while three members of the occupation police were injured after settlers hurled stones at them, the media said. The pace of protests escalated in the last hours against the judicial reforms after the…

BERLIN — Germany is poised to pass a new nationality law that will make it easier for foreigners to gain German citizenship as part of a wider shake-up of immigration policy aimed at bolstering the country’s shrinking workforce. The draft law, which will be put to lawmakers in the coming months, would allow people to apply for citizenship after five years of German residence, instead of the current eight. Those who have made particular efforts to integrate, for instance by becoming proficient in German, would be eligible to apply after three years. It would also lift a ban on dual…

BEIJING — Debt-heavy local governments in China need new ways to raise money under a central regime that’s made clear its priority is to reduce financial risks. Local governments’ direct debt exceeded 120% of revenue in 2022, S&P Global Ratings analysts said, noting that’s more than what Beijing has unofficially said was an acceptable debt level. “The country’s provinces and municipalities have relied heavily on expanded bond issuance to carry them through a COVID-triggered economic slowdown and collapsed land-sale revenues,” the S&P analysts said in a report last month. International Monetary Fund data show China’s explicit local government debt nearly doubled…

LONDON — Turbulence across the banking sector has prompted the question of whether we are teetering on the edge of another financial crash, 2008-style. But a banking crisis today would look very different from 15 years ago thanks to social media, online banking, and huge shifts in regulation. This is “the first bank crisis of the Twitter generation,” Paul Donovan, chief economist at UBS Global Wealth Management, told CNBC earlier this month, in reference to the collapse of Credit Suisse. Shares of Credit Suisse dropped on March 14 after “material weaknesses” were found in its financial reporting. The news started a tumultuous five days for the lender,…

First Citizens Bank & Trust Co will buy Silicon Valley Bank’s deposits and loans, the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said Monday, just over two weeks after the biggest U.S. banking collapse since Lehman Brothers. The deal includes the purchase of approximately $72 billion of SVB assets at a discount of $16.5 billion, but around $90 billion in securities and other assets will remain “in receivership for disposition by the FDIC.” “In addition, the FDIC received equity appreciation rights in First Citizens BancShares, Inc., Raleigh, North Carolina, common stock with a potential value of up to $500 million,” the FDIC said in a…

Saudi National Bank Chairman Ammar al-Khudairy resigned his post on Monday, days after his comments exacerbated the share collapse of troubled bank Credit Suisse. He will be replaced by SNB Managing Director and Group CEO Mohammed al-Ghamdi, with former deputy Talal Ahmed al-Khereiji now the new SNB acting CEO, according to a SNB statement to the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul). Al-Khudairy is stepping down “due to personal reasons,” the bank said. Al-Khudairy’s resignation comes within days of his mid-March comments to Bloomberg that SNB was unlikely to increase its stake in Credit Suisse, at a time when the European lender battled a crisis…

More international capital is likely to flee from Western markets to Asia, according to experts The unfolding banking crisis in the US and Europe, which has shattered investor confidence in the Western financial system, could highlight China as a “relative safe haven,” economists at Citi said in a note seen by CNBC. The Chinese economy could see accelerated expansion this year, giving the country a “hedge” for growth while economies in the US and Europe face heightened risk of financial disruption, according to the note. “We have long been discussing our view that China can be a major growth hedge this year…

Almost four in 10 people have to use credit cards to cover the rising prices of essentials, says Nationwide The deepening cost-of-living crisis has pushed up bills in the UK, with households now spending 12% more on essentials than they were a year ago, Nationwide reports. According to the monthly analysis by Britain’s biggest building society, spending on utility bills jumped by around a third (34%) last month in annual terms. Spending on mortgage payments surged by 17%, while rent payments were up by 11%. The report also showed that spending on loans and insurance rose by 8% and 7%,…

Business groups, labor unions and others are sounding off against state GOP efforts to bar public pensions from making environmentally and socially conscious investments. A growing wave of public pension administrators, business groups and labor unions are sending a message to Republicans looking to curb so-called “woke” investing: our money, our choice. Regulatory efforts to stop money from going to funds that consider environmental, social and governance issues, commonly known as ESG investing, have typically targeted big Wall Street asset managers. Now, public pensions are increasingly caught in the crosshairs and with them the retirement funds of teachers, librarians, firefighters…